If a Hollywood studio needed a fighter to play the hero in an old-time boxing movie, the search could begin and end with John Duddy.

Duddy was born and raised in County Derry, Ireland, and moved to New York two years ago. A charismatic 25-year-old, he has a thick Irish brogue and matinee-idol good looks. He is likable, gracious, and charming. And he’s singularly focused on making it as a pugilist in his adopted home.

“I’m here for one thing and that’s business,” he says. “I’m here to box. People come to me all the time and say, ‘I’ll get you in movies.’ They promise me this and they promise me that. And I tell them, ‘After boxing.’ I’m very focused on my career. And I believe that a fighter needs passion, not cruelty, to be great.”

In nine pro fights, Duddy has nine knockouts, seven of them in the first round. Most of those victories came against soft touches. But last Friday night, in a fight featured on ESPN2, Duddy knocked out Lenord Pierre in 83 seconds. Prior to that bout, Pierre had a record of 16-0 with 11 knockouts, and he was considered a considerable step up in class for Duddy.

“It’s a challenge,” Duddy had said before the fight. “I’m going to find out a bit more about myself as a fighter.”

But Friday’s victory did little to indicate what lies ahead for Duddy. He hasn’t been dragged into the late rounds and he hasn’t been whacked hard on the chin by a pro. The thought was that Pierre would do one or both of those things, but he failed to do either.

“It’s hard to tell how good he is, because he didn’t have much in front of him on Friday night,” ESPN boxing commentator Teddy Atlas noted. “But I like him as a fighter, and I like him as a person. As a fighter, he’s exciting. He has good hand-speed and a good short hook, and it looks like he takes his job seriously. And as a person, he’s articulate, he’s respectful, he seems genuine. John Duddy could be very good for boxing.”

Duddy’s interest in boxing began with his father, a club fighter in the early 1980s who posted a 3-4 record.

“He took me to the gym,” Duddy recalls. “Watching him is how I got involved with boxing. I started training for the fun of it when I was 5 and had my first fight at 7. It was against a 12- year-old who quit after the first round. When I got in the ring, everybody was looking at me. And when they raised my hand, I liked it a lot. From then on, I loved boxing.

“No other place in the world smells like a boxing gym,” Duddy continues. “It’s unique; I love it. The sweat, the leather; it’s the smell of success.” Duddy smiles, which he does a lot: “I remember my mother saying to me, ‘If that’s the smell of success, go outside and put a hose on it.'”

Duddy fought in 130 amateur bouts, winning 100 of them. He had some success in international competition but eventually suffered from burnout, a common affliction among fighters who start young.

“It was the same thing again and again,” he remembers. “The same bad hotels; the same planes; the same buses; the same bad food. It wasn’t fun anymore, and I wasn’t getting better as a fighter.”

Then he met Eddie McLaughlin, an Irishman living in Queens, who’s in the construction business.

“I was friendly with John’s trainer,” McLaughlin explains. “He told me he had a kid and might be interested in moving him to America in the future. Then, maybe a year later, he called and said, ‘The kid needs to get out of here. He’s at a state where you mention boxing and he just cringes his teeth.’ So I said, ‘Send him here and we’ll see if he likes it.'”

Duddy came to America in March 2003, and turned pro with a first-round knockout of Tarek Rached at Jimmy’s Bronx Cafe on September 19, 2003.

“That was my dream,” he says. “I’d been to America a few times as an amateur and knew this was the place to be. The best trainers, the best sparring, the best of everything in boxing is here. Eddie opened that door for me and he’s looked after me ever since.”

Duddy fights at 160 pounds, which will be his weight for the foreseeable future. He has power in both hands, a jab that he doesn’t use often enough, and a free-swinging style that leaves him open to counterpunches.

He’s also tough: His jaw was broken in an amateur fight, but he fought through the pain and won.

“There were a few times in the amateurs when I was telling my legs to stand still and they were wobbling,” he says.

He has failed to go the distance only twice, once in a fight stopped by the referee when he was 10 years old, and once on the 15-point rule in the European championships (in international competition, the bout is stopped if a fighter falls behind by more than 15 points).

“John’s not the most skilled fighter in the world,” says Duddy’s trainer, Harry Keitt. “But he’s the most determined fighter I’ve ever worked with.”

The only stumbling block in Duddy’s professional career was a seven-month period last year when he was exiled from the U.S. after overstaying his visa.

“I really thought the dream was over,” he says. “While I was back in Ireland, my father offered to work with me in the gym, but my heart and spirit weren’t in it. Nothing could make me pursue my career in Ireland. Ireland will always be home to me. It’s a wonderful country. But for boxing, the right people and the right knowledge just aren’t there. So I worked as a bouncer, a postman, and a lifeguard until I was able to come back to New York.”

Even away from home, though, Duddy’s heritage serves him well.

“Wherever I go, I have Irish people offering to help and cheering for me.”