Duddy’s demolition job cheers Irish fans

JOHN DUDDY surprised even himself with the manner in which he claimed his first title belt on a boisterous night in New York before 5,000 Irish fight fans.

The Derry boxer took his perfect record to 16-0, at Madison Square Garden’s Theatre, early into yesterday morning, and with it the vacant WBC Continental Americas middleweight championship, with a devastating first-round knockout of American Shelby Pudwill.

The North Dakotan looked a quivering wreck after becoming the 14th of Duddy’s victims to have failed to go the distance, and the 26-year-old Irishman’s ninth to have failed to last an opening round.