Showdown with Duddyon cards

ANDY LEE and John Duddy could touch gloves in a world title decider by November, according to Lee’s handler, Emanuel Steward.

For that to happen, Duddy must dethrone world champion Kelly Pavlik at Madison Square Garden on June 7 — and Steward fancies the Derry-man.

Next up for Lee is a clash with the Texan, Brian Vera, at the Mohegan Sun Casino in Connecticut on March 21 — a fight that will be carried live on the ESPN network — Lee’s first nationally televised headliner in the States.

The Limerick man may then fight at The Palace in Auburn Hills near Detroit, on April 10 with possibly Willie Gibbs, a power-puncher from Philadelphia with a 20-3 record and all but four of his wins inside the distance.

Said Steward: “We should be back in Ireland in May and then, maybe around June, we’d be looking at a fight with former world champion Winky Wright, or Howard Eastman.

“It’s easier to fight a stand-up boxer than the fighters who stay out of the way and lunge at you when they punch.”

He claimed: “Andy should be fighting for the world title around November, that’s the deal I have with promoter Bob Arum.

“With middleweights, the world, right now, just thinks of Kelly Pavlik and Jermain Taylor, but the main fighter in my eyes — and without a whole lot of exposure — is this man sitting right here beside me. You also have John Duddy, of course, but, while a lot of people are supporting Duddy, they don’t seem to have that much faith in him from what I’ve been reading on the internet.

“Kelly Pavlik has signed to fight Duddy in Madison Square Garden on June 7 and in order to get that fight, Duddy had to sign with Arum, who now has both fighters and we have a deal with Arum for Andy Lee to fight the winner of that fight.”