Duddy On The Edge Of The Big One

Having recently returned from a seven-month European tour that saw him score two knockouts in Dublin and win a hard-earned and well-deserved 10-round decision over two-time world title challenger Howard Eastman in Belfast, top-rated middleweight contender John Duddy looked locked, loaded, refreshed and extremely calm and confident when he weighed in at 158 ½ pounds today for his bout against Walid Smichet at Madison Square Garden on Saturday, February 23rd.

Although the 10-round bout will not be televised by HBO, which is airing the main event of the evening, a heavyweight unification bout between Wladimir Klitschko and Sultan Ibragimov, this is the most important fight of the 28-year-old Duddy’s life.

Should Duddy, 23-0 (17 KOS), beat Smichet, 17-3-3 (13 KOS), a 28-year-old Tunisian who has relocated to Montreal, he is all but guaranteed a June 7th date against Kelly Pavlik, who is universally regarded as the middleweight champion of the world.

If that fight is to take place, it would not only probably be the Fight of the Year from an action standpoint, the revenue and fan support it would generate would be dizzying.

The always entertaining Duddy and Pavlik are as close as you are going to get today to the all-action fighters of yesteryear.

“If they ever fight, it would be like the old days when fights were scheduled for much more than 12 rounds,” said promoter Cedric Kushner, who was speaking only as an objective observer. “With these two guys, you’d probably run out of rounds. That’s how much they like to fight.”

Both Pavlik and Duddy are offensive whirlwinds whose tremendous power is only rivaled by their mutually strong belief in their ability to beat anyone who is put in front of them. But as exciting as a Pavlik-Duddy fight would be to the masses, and as much as it’s being talked about in the media, Duddy is much too sensible to look past Smichet.

“John’s attitude throughout his career has always been for him to take one small step at a time, and, if successful, he would eventually fight for a world title,” said Jim Borzell, the longtime matchmaker for Irish Ropes Promotions, the company that has been handling Duddy’s meteoric career.
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