Duddy Has the Big Room in His Sights

Within the boxing industry, Irish middleweight John Duddy is becoming a phenomenon. A 27-year-old from County Derry, undefeated in 17 fights with 15 knockouts, Duddy is handsome and talented with an exciting style. On Friday night, he’ll step into the ring to face Yori Boy Campas in the Theater at Madison Square Garden. A sell-out is expected. But more importantly, the fight will serve as a barometer of how Duddy is progressing as a fighter.Campas is 35 with the wear and tear of 96 professional fights under his belt. But those 96 fights have prodcued 88 victories with 72 knockouts, and five of his eight losses came in world championship bouts against the likes of Felix Trinidad and Oscar De La Hoya. Duddy won’t win by just showing up.Duddy showed up in New York in March, 2003, after a respectable amateur career in Ireland. He turned pro six months later and has been winning fights and hearts ever since. As an amateur, he was known as a boxer who won by piling up points. As a pro, he displays considerable punching power. He hopes to utilize both components of his arsenal to dispose of Campas.Friday’s fight will be Duddy’s 10th fight in New York and his fourth at Madison Square Garden. He’s at a point now where the business imperatives of boxing are starting to interfere with his fighting as often as he’d like. The bigger the fight, the more lead-time is required to set it up. But the plan is for Duddy to fight at Madison Square Garden at least once more this year. Even to this point, he’s come a long way.“When John first came to New York, he worked for my construction company and I saw the effort he put in,” Eddie McLoughlin, Duddy’s co-manager, said recently. “There was no shirking. He pulled his load and more. And then after a full day, he’d go to the gym and work just as hard.”Junior-welterweight contender Paulie Malignaggi shares the floor with Duddy at Gleason’s Gym.“John is one of the hardest-working guys I’ve ever seen,” Malignaggi said after a workout this summer.Duddy takes pride in his evolution as a fighter.“I’ve shown that I’m not just a one punch fighter and that I can go the distance,” he said after his last fight, a seventh-round stoppage of Alfredo Cuevas at Madison Square Garden on June 10. “I’m using my jab more and moving my head. Every time I get in the ring, I’m taking steps. They may be small steps, but they’re always steps forward. There’s a lot more improvement that I need, but I’m progressing nicely. A year ago, I felt like an amateur in a professional sport. I’m a lot more comfortable being a professional boxer now. And I’ve damn sure left my amateur days behind.”Earlier this year, Duddy flew to Las Vegas to attend the annual Boxing Writers Association of America awards dinner. Even at 27, he was a kid among heroes in the room.“I can’t believe it,” he said during the cocktail hour. “Wayne McCullough [a silver medalist for Ireland at the 1992 Olympics and later the World Boxing Council bantamweight champion] came over and said hello to me. I remember watching him on television when I was a boy.”“I’ve heard a lot about John and wanted to meet him,” McCullough said in return. “He’s a nice fellow.”The next day, the two were text-messaging back and forth. The following night, Duddy was at ringside to witness Oscar De La Hoya’s sixth-round knockout of Ricardo Mayorga before an adoring crowd.“It made me glad I’m in this sport,” Duddy said afterward. “That’s what boxing is all about.”To his growing legion of fans, Duddy is the fourth point on an Irish shamrock. In public, he’s unfailingly friendly and polite, which is one reason his popularity keeps growing.“It’s getting to feel as though every time I go into a bar, it’s like a question-and-answer session,” he said while sitting in Jack Demsey’s pub last month. But I accept the position I’m in and the strings that come with it. I’m thankful that people seem to care about me and are interested in what I’m doing. And I haven’t had a bad experience with the public yet.”As for next year, McLoughlin is planning another Duddy fight for the Theater on March 16, the night before St. Patrick’s Day.“And I’d like to think,” McLoughlin has said, “that John will be upstairs in the big arena fighting for all the marbles in 2008.”But first things first. And the first thing Duddy has to do now is beat Campas. Thus, when asked how far away he is from fighting elite middleweights like Jermain Taylor and Winky Wright, Duddy answered “I don’t know. I only know where I am now, and that’s getting ready to fight Yori Boy Campas. There’s no point in looking beyond that.”

Duddy Has the Big Room in His Sights

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