Duddy, Moore Win Big

Irish Voice Sport

Duddy, Moore Win Big

October 25, 2007

By Declan O’Kelly

JAMES Moore made it 13 wins as a pro at the Hammerstein Ballroom on Thursday night with a unanimous decision win over Brad Greenleaf, while John Duddy had an easy win at the National Stadium in Dublin two nights later.

Wicklow native Moore, a light middleweight, had spent several weeks preparing for an orthodox fighter, only to find out at the weigh-in that his opponent was a southpaw. Though completely nullifying all his preparations Moore, despite an uncomfortable start, settled in and won easily with a workmanlike performance.

Moore entered the ring in a sleeveless Celtic jersey fight to the sound of Guns ‘n’ Roses’ “Welcome to the Jungle.” There was a long delay before the fight that led many to believe there was something amiss, but the two fighters eventually arrived to get things underway.

Moore was understandably tentative against his southpaw opponent in the early rounds, and his left hook was his best weapon as he waited to land his trademark body blows. He was hit more than usual in the opening stanzas but Greenleaf, though very strong physically, never connected with anything that troubled the 29-year-old.

Moore opened up in the middle rounds, especially the fourth, when his bodywork softened up Greenleaf, allowing the Irish man to connect with some good combinations. The last two rounds saw Moore look for the KO, and though he did not find it, the three judges handed him the win by the scores of 60-54, 60-54 and 59-55. The win takes Moore to 13-0 as Greenleaf falls to 10-8-1.

"I would give him a B-plus. We thought we were fighting a right handed person and we trained for a right hander, not a left handed fighter," said trainer Harry Keitt afterwards. "He is a tremendous crowd favorite, but he started fighting for the crowd and not for James Moore. If the knockout comes it comes, but you can't force it."

Moore echoed these sentiments afterwards. "I think had I boxed him and stuck to the plan, I would have stopped it, but I kept looking for the one big shot,” he said.

“The harder I was trying, the further it got away. The referee was constantly cautioning me for holding, and he wouldn't let me work. But I got the rounds in, and I felt in great shape."

Moore admitted to getting a bit of a shock on finding out his opponent was a leftie. “I found out the at the weigh-in. After doing 40 rounds of sparring, not one round did I do with a southpaw. I don’t even like southpaws."

Moore is now concentrating on a possible New York State Belt challenge on Thanksgiving Eve in Long Island and will begin preparing for what should be the biggest fight of his career thus far.

As expected, middleweight Duddy (22-0) had an easy win in Dublin on Saturday night. It was man against boy as Duddy dismantled Prince Aaron with the referee stopping the fight in the second.

The 19-year-old Aron looked a little shell shocked on his way to the ring. Derry native Duddy looked very focused entering the arena and maintained his composure marvelously despite Irish popstar Samantha Mumba’s best efforts to distract him with her rendition of a rather bizarre Eurovision-type song called “The Irish Warrior.”

Once the hoopla was over, the first round started with Aaron using his reach advantage to keep Duddy away and even landed a few jabs. However, once Duddy started throwing punches and putting Aaron on the back foot it looked bad for the Englishman.

A slip or kneel by Aaron surprised Duddy a little, but a left hook to the head shortly after had Aaron down in earnest. There was only one winner from that point on.

The Englishman survived to the bell but was down twice in the second before referee Emile Tiedt called a halt to proceedings with 2:33 gone in the round.

"You have to give credit to Aaron; he is a brave customer. He doesn’t have as much experience as I do, but I am a professional and I have to do my job. I hope everyone enjoyed it," said Duddy.

"I am working hard with Don Turner and finally started doing what he told me in the round that he told me to do it in."

In a no-win situation, the best thing that happened for Duddy was that he didn't get cut, and he now moves on to Belfast on December 8.

"We have the King’s Hall booked (for December 8) and the only thing that will sidetrack that is the world championship," confirmed Duddy’s manager Eddie McLoughlin.

Jermain Taylor has until the end of the month to decide whether he wants to exercise the rematch clause in his contract with the new WBO/WBC middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik. Several media outlets reported Tuesday that Taylor was invoking the clause to fight Pavlik at a catch weight, but that Pavlik-Duddy could still happen before that rematch if Bob Arum (Pavlik’s promoter) and Lou DiBella (Taylor’s promoter) can make a deal.

In other news, Limerick middleweight Andy Lee (12-0) will fight Brad Austin (8-3) on November 15 at the Compuware Arena, in Plymouth, Michigan. Austin was meant to fight Lee in Ireland back in August, but passport problems for the Tennessee man prevented the pair meeting in Dublin.

Austin was last in action in July against James McGirt Jr. Though he lost that fight by unanimous decision, he was a strong and very durable opponent that night and should provide Lee with a far sterner test than his last outing, where he KO’d James Morrow in round one.

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