Bruised Duddy still set for title shot this year

AS John Duddy still nurses the stitches above his eyes and applies a cold compress to what must undoubtedly be a severely bruised ego, he should offer thanks to the boxing gods that he still has a world middleweight title fight to aim for this year.

Saturday night at Madison Square Garden was supposed to be the unbeaten Irishman’s inauguration as a challenger to the undisputed champion Kelly Pavlik.

With the Garden booked for June 7 and the deal done, all Duddy had to do was safely negotiate the unheralded talents of a Montreal-based Tunisian called Walid Smichet over 10 rounds.

With veteran US trainer Don Turner in his corner and promising the elimination of defensive flaws and a return to the amateur Duddy’s strengths as a boxer rather than a slugger, that latter obstacle was assumed to be a given.

Well, yesterday the Garden was still booked by Top Rank’s Bob Arum for June 7 and Pavlik is still making his first defence. The only thing missing will be Duddy because though the Derryman stretched his pro record to 24 wins and no defeats, he was given such a going over by Smichet that the cuts sustained fulfilling his obligations this summer virtually impossible.

“We did make a deal with Duddy but the cuts are so deep, we hear, that we’re going to have to forget about it,” Arum, a ringside spectator along with Pavlik, said.

While Duddy will now put his title dreams on hold, and Pavlik’s people search for a new challenger to fill the June 7 date at the Garden, Arum said the champion could still face the Derryman before year’s end.

“Duddy can fight Kelly down the road in September or November,” the Top Rank guru said. “Duddy would figure in there but it’s silly for him to rush through everything if the cuts are as bad as we’re hearing.”

Duddy’s promoter Eddie McLoughlin, president of the New York-based Irish Ropes has bankrolled the boxer’s career since he turned pro in 2003 and was philosophical about the setback although he recognised that the poor display would have given him less bargaining power with Arum when they return to the negotiating table.

“We’ll sit down and analyse the whole thing,” McLoughlin said. “It’s a bit of a waiting game now because we don’t have the clout… a better performance would have been better for everyone. But that’s boxing for you.”

McLoughlin was bemused by Duddy’s poor performance — he was caught by 47 power punches in the first round alone — that left the judges and Duddy’s contingent of fans in a minority among the 14,011-strong crowd as to who had won the fight.

Indeed, Saturday night had to be the first time booing has been heard at one of the Irishman’s fights.

McLoughlin said: “Maybe the schedule was a bit hectic, that’s his fourth fight in about seven months.

“He just wasn’t on song tonight, I don’t know what happened.’’

McLoughlin agreed the scoring by the two judges who gave the fight to Duddy had been overgenerous.

“Eight rounds to two was a little bit of a stretch, I though it should maybe have been 6-4 or 7-3. But we’ll take it.”

Smichet was left decidedly unimpressed by Duddy and the scoring.

“I had the edge on him, I hit him with better punches and I finished stronger in the later rounds,” Smichet said. “And I should have knocked him out in the first or second rounds.

“I didn’t feel his punches but he did have a better chin than I thought he would. Usually when I hit guys like that they go down.”