E-Day Dawns for Duddy

Irish Voice Sport

E-Day Dawns for Duddy

December 6, 2007

By Declan O’Kelly

JOHN Duddy will take a decisive step in his career this Saturday night when he fights Howard Eastman at the King’s Hall in Belfast.

Eastman, who turns 37 on the day of the fight, will provide a benchmark as to how much Duddy has improved under Don Turner. “The Battersea Bomber,” as he is known, has a record of 42-5 (35 KOs) and has only been stopped once in his career.

A former European and two-time world middleweight title challenger (losing to William Joppy and Bernard Hopkins), Eastman, somewhat of an enigma, is drinking in the last chance saloon of his career. It would appear that he is taking this challenge very seriously.

Question marks were raised about his preparations for his last fight against Wayne Elcock on September 28 (Eastman lost a UD points decision). This time around, he arrived in Belfast a full 10 days before the fight, and his camp seems a little surprised at the odds of 4-1 being offered for him to win.

Eastman knows that a win would put him back into world title contention, and will be even more motivated by the fact that his loss to Elcock cost him a world title shot. (Elcock’s win earned him a shot at Arthur Abraham’s IBF title, also taking place on Saturday night in Germany).

Duddy, meanwhile, has been training hard for the fight in New Bern, North Carolina. Since the Yori Boy Campas fight on September 29, 2006, the Derry destroyer (22-0, 17 KOs) has not really been tested by any of his subsequent opponents (Bonsante, Strickland, Furlan and Aaron) who either fought to survive or succumbed early. The same will not be said of Eastman, and Duddy knows it.

“Eastman has fought the middleweight division’s best. Fighting Eastman means if you hit him he won’t be going on his bike like in a lot of my recent fights. Hopefully he will bring out the best in me. It’s going to be a cracker of a fight,” Duddy said.

Duddy, who flew to Belfast last Saturday, will have to be at his best to take care of this tricky customer. Turner said his charge has the potential to become his 21st world champion, and it was all up to Duddy about how far he went.

He also said that Duddy needed to hark back to his amateur style to avoid taking shots. Duddy has also alluded to this.

“We’ve been working on the basics, my punching and moving my head more than I have been doing previously which is going back to my amateur days because I never got hit that much as an amateur,” Duddy said.

“Hopefully I’ll be doing things better than I have in the past, but I don’t think there will be any dramatic changes in me.”

Speaking of the growing relationship with Turner, Duddy said, “Boxing is the same as any other business – it depends on results. If we get a good result against Howard Eastman that will strengthen the communication and friendship that we have been working on over the past few months. But is all down to getting the victory and doing the business, and I am looking forward to the challenge.

“I always come to fight prepared – I am ready for a short night or a long night. I think Eastman is going to pose a long and a hard night’s work.

But that’s the whole part of being a professional and being ready for the unexpected. I think whatever obstacles Eastman throws at me on the 8th of December I should be capable of handling them.”

Duddy, never a man short of a good line, kept it short and sweet when asked what he would have to do to win.

“I think it going to be, punch him more than he punches me!” he said.

But as simple as this analysis is, it is dead on. We know Duddy has a good punch, now he needs to show that he can avoid the dangerous hands of Eastman. It promises to be a very interesting fight.

Fans can see it live on www.rte.ie, which is streaming the fight on their website. Coverage starts at 9 p.m. Irish time (4 p.m. EST).

Also in action in Belfast will be fellow Irish Ropes boxer Alo Kelly, who will be making his debut as a professional in Ireland on the undercard. The last time Kelly fought in Ireland was seven years ago and it is something he is very much looking forward to.

“It’s great to be fighting back home again after all these years. Its not so long ago I was doing everything wrong, but now I am back in boxing and people are coming out to see me,” said Kelly from the same training camp as Duddy.

Kelly, who is 3-0-1, has fought at light heavyweight so far but will fight at 170 pounds next week as he makes his way down to 168 pounds (super middleweight), where he hopes make his biggest impact.

“As far as I know it will be a four round fight. The plan is to come down slowly to super middleweight, with maybe a couple of fights at 170 to do that,” said Kelly, who admits he labored a little in his last win against William Santiago on November 9. As we go to press, no opponent has been finalized.

“I just hope to put up a better performance than my last fight and be sharper. I will be expecting a tough fight – I learned from my last fight not to take my foot off the pedal. I‘ll be ready for the fight no matter who it will be.”

Kelly, now 29, concedes that all his fights are going to be do or die as he just doesn’t have the time to waste. “I need to find out where I can go and as quick as possible, otherwise it’s back to work again!”

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