Articles of 2005
John Duddy Breaks Record
NEW YORK – When George Washington decided to hang up his gloves for good in 1796, he left his fellow pugilists with an admonition to “avoid entangling alliances,” advice John Duddy’s managerial team appears to have taken to heart.
When the 26-year-old Irishman steps into the ring in Florida on Dec. 15 in search of his 14thprofessional win in as many tries, he will be fighting for his tenth different promoter, which could well be a modern-day record.
So far, anyway, Duddy’s career path resembles the early trajectory of Ray Charles Leonard after the latter turned pro following the 1976 Olympics, and Eddie McLoughlin, whose Irish Ropes has been bankrolling Duddy’s meteoric rise through the middleweight ranks, admits to having been influenced by the innovative roadmap laid out three decades earlier by Mike Trainer, Leonard’s attorney and advisor.
“We’ve studied the model of Leonard’s career,” said McLoughlin. “It was a sensible route to take.”
Of course, there’s one big difference. Leonard could afford to remain a promotional free agent, since from the outset his career was underwritten by the television networks.
“We know we’re going to make really big money only when television is interested,” said McLoughlin, “so you either sign up with a promoter or you promote it yourself and risk losing 20 or 30 thousand dollars a show. Or you do it the way we’ve done it.
“We haven’t been looking to beat anyone for big numbers,” McLoughlin explained. “We’ve mainly been looking to get him seen – but John was responsible for selling $63,000 worth of tickets for his last show (Cedric Kushner’s Nov. 4 card at New York’s Hammerstein Ballroom).
Thus far Duddy has fought for Kushner, Bob Arum, Lou DiBella, Sal Musumeci, Joe DeGuardia, Rick Cappiello, Bobby Hitz, Northeast Promotions, and New England Ringside. It’s safe to say that every one of the above would love to sign Duddy. So would Don King and Dino Duva, both of whom have made runs at him, but McLoughlin is already looking at least three fights down the line with no intention of tying his fighter up with anybody.
“If it’s not broke, don’t fix it,” said Duddy with a shrug.
“But we’re always willing to listen,” added Eddie McLoughlin.
The Dec. 15 show at the Seminole Hard Rock Arena is being promoted by Warrior’s Boxing. Assuming all goes well, the plan calls for Duddy to fight again in late January/early February, either in Las Vegas, on a Russell Peltz show in Philadelphia, or atop another New England Ringside card in Boston.
Then comes the big one: St. Patrick’s Day at the Garden. (Well, at the Theatre.)
“No disrespect to John’s next two opponents, but we’ve already reserved the Theatre for the night of March 16,” said McLoughlin. “It will be promoted by Irish Ropes. We’re registered as a promoter in New York State, and we’ve even got a name for the show: The Shamrock Express Rolls Through Madison Square Garden.
Duddy will headline the show, and if there has been some criticism about the quality of the Derry middleweight’s recent opposition, nobody’s going to complain about McLoughlin’s proposed St. Patrick’s Day foe – former IBF champion Luis Ramon (Yory Boy) Campas.
At 34, Campas is still a wily veteran closing in on 100 pro fights, and appears to be a big step up for Duddy. The Mexican’s record is 87-8, but those losses include five to world champions (Oscar De La Hoya, Felix Trinidad, Fernando Vargas, Jose Luis Lopez and David Santos) and another to Oba Carr. Moreover, at a stage in his career where many veteran ex-champions serve as cannon fodder for younger boxers headed in the opposite direction, Yory Boy has spoiled the career of many an up-and-comer like Duddy. In his last fight he knocked out fellow Sonoran Eseban Camou, who was 17-0 at the time. (Duddy will presumably be 15-0 by St. Patrick’s Day.)
Campas was also the guy who wrecked Tony Ayala’s comeback by snapping El Torito’s two-decade long unbeaten streak at 27-0, and not long ago added the scalp of Andres Pacheco, who was 13-1 when he ran into Campas.
Campas won the vacant NABF title in the Camou fight, and that belt will presumably be at stake in the New York main event. McLoughlin is looking to turn the St. Patrick’s eve card into an Irish-themed event, and plans to showcase Matt Macklin, the 15-1 Birmingham-based middleweight and potential future Duddy foe, along with Duddy’s stablemate, Arklow middleweight James Moore.
(Moore, 4-0, is nursing bruised ribs and won’t participate on next month’s Florida card. It was announced that he’d incurred the injury in his fight against Manji Conteh underneath Duddy-Brian Mackie at the Hammerstein earlier this month, which was a surprise to ringsiders, who couldn’t recall Conteh ever connecting to the body. Truth is, it turns out Moore was hurt sparring with Duddy a week earlier and took the injury into the ring with him.)
Duddy doesn’t yet have an announced foe for Dec. 15. McLoughlin thought he had lined up 23-10 Florida journeyman Darrell Woods for the date, “but Woods has stopped answering his phone, and I’m assuming we’re going to have to find another opponent.”
In his Nov. 4 fight Duddy knocked down former Canadian champion Mackie four times en route to a 4th-round TKO. In September in Mansfield, Mass, he whacked out a seemingly terrified Joe Brady in just over a minute to score his 8thfirst-round knockout – an impressive roster that includes a 1:23 conquest last March over then-undefeated Leonard Pierre at Foxwoods.
Duddy was born and raised in Derry, a hotbed of ‘The Troubles’ in the early 1970s. On Jan. 30, 1972, his uncle and namesake, Jackie Duddy, was the first of 13 civilians killed when British paratroopers opened fire on civil rights demonstrators on what would come to be known as “Bloody Sunday.”
Duddy’s deceased uncle was a promising amateur, and his father, Mickey Duddy, was a journeyman pro who sparred with the likes of Charlie Nash, Ken Buchanan, and Barry McGuigan. A boxing pedigree obviously courses through his veins, but despite coming from a nation which traditionally honors its slain martyrs, Duddy has gone almost overboard in his effort to avoid the appearance of capitalizing on the fate of his late Uncle Jackie.
“His name was John Francis Duddy and my name is John Francis Duddy,” Duddy told us a few months ago. “He was a fighter and I’m a fighter, but I didn’t become a fighter because he was a fighter. It had nothing to do with me. It all happened years before I was even born.”
Duddy’s rise has been eyed with growing interest back in his homeland. Although he won an All-Ireland championship at light middleweight, he was scarcely the banger he has become as a professional, and when they left Ireland most would have assumed that James Moore would have been the more promising of the two.
Along with Moore, Duddy trains under Harry Keitt at the Irish Ropes Gym in Far Rockaway. Keitt, a Brooklyn native, was better known for training amateurs (Dmitriy Salita among them) before hooking up with the Irish Connection. Almost 15 years ago he was featured in a boxing film called “On the Ropes,” which traced the star-crossed careers of three young amateurs trained by Keitt.
“Harry has some different training methods,” said Duddy. “One of the things we do out there is hitting a lorry tire with a sledgehammer for 20 minutes after each session.
“Boxers from Jack Dempsey to Ali to George Foreman used to chop wood in their training camps,” Duddy continued, “but as Harry says, if you start cutting down trees in New York City, they’re going to put you in jail.”
Duddy’s Florida appearance, his first pay-per-view fight, will be as part of a multi-national cast on what the promoters are billing as “Global Warfare.” Besides the Irishman, the dramatis personae will include a Nigerian (heavyweight Samuel Peter, who tries to bounce back from his September loss to Wladimir Klitschko against Robert Hawkins in the main event), a Colombian (welterweight Juan Urango, who fights former WBC lightweight champion Cesar Bazan on the undercard), a Canadian (light-heavyweight Dale Brown), and, of course, a Russian (Sultan Ibragimov, who will engage in a rematch of last Wednesday afternoon’s main event against Lance Whitaker at Gallagher’s Steak House).
We must confess to having missed this particular matinee. Once our conversation with Duddy, McLoughlin, and Keitt had concluded we took our leave of the premises, and were consequently not around when the glasses, silverware, and crockery started flying around the room. As usually happens in these impromptu press conference brawls, neither Goofy nor the Sultan got a scratch, but a would-be peacemaker was knocked cold and carted off to the hospital in an ambulance.
When we heard later that day that that a freeloader had been kayoed at Gallagher’s, we briefly entertained the fantasy that Goofy might have decked Bert Sugar, but, alas, the victim turned out to have been Ibragimov’s ‘advisor,’ Sampson Lewkowicz, who was treated and released later that day.
Articles of 2005
In Boxing News: Floyd Mayweather An All-Time Great, Valuev & More
A Shot of Boxing on the Last Day of the Year
The Guardian reports that talks have already taken place between Nicolay Valuev‘s co-promoters – Don King and Wilfried Sauerland – and Danny Williams‘ promoter Frank Warren for Nicolay Valuev to face Danny Williams. I’d suggest Danny Williams needs to worry about Matt Skelton (who Williams is reportedly scheduled to fight in February) before he entertains notions of facing the Beast From The East.
The Mirror in the UK looks forward to a big year in boxing for 2006. The Mirror considers what the future might bring for Joe Calzaghe, Amir Khan and Ricky Hatton, among others.
The Parksville Qualicum News has an interesting column on the travails of former Canadian Super Middleweight title holder Mark Woolnough. Woolnough’s career turned controversial – as widely reported in the Canadian press – at the beginning of this year when Woolnough and four other men were charged with manslaughter and assault after a fight outside a Parksville nightclub. The case returns to court next month. It’s an interesting read, as Woolnough is still looking to the future with hope.
Our own Marc Lichtenfeld provides plenty of food for thought with his Top Ten Wish List for boxing in the New Year. There’s plenty of good stuff here, but what really jumped out for me is Lichtenfeld’s opinion that a win over Zab Judah could have Floyd Mayweather knocking on the door of all-time great status. Seems to me this might be jumping the gun a little. Or is Marc right? Will it soon be time to call Floyd Mayweather Jr. an all-time great?
(More Boxing News Links at TheSweetScience.com)
Articles of 2005
ShoBox Friday Night Fights
Hot bantamweight prospect Raul “The Cobra” Martinez heads back to Chicago next Friday night as he is featured in the co-main event of SHOBOX “THE NEW GENERATION,” an action packed evening of professional boxing presented by Dominic Pesoli’s 8 Count Productions,’ HOME OF THE BEST IN CHICAGO BOXING, Kathy Duva’s Main Events Inc., along with Miller Lite and TCF Bank.
The two-time national amateur champion sporting a perfect 12-0 record with 9 knockouts, six of which have come in the first round, will take on Colombian Andres “Andy Boy” Ledesma, 13-1 (8 KOs) in a scheduled eight round bout.
Speaking after a training session at his home gym in Georgetown, Texas, Martinez said, “I’m truly looking forward to returning to Chicago. The fans were terrific in September, they were very supportive from the start of the fight,” an internationally televised first round knockout of Miguel Martinez on September 16th at the Aragon Ballroom.
Regarding his upcoming fight with Ledesma, “The Cobra” said, “I haven’t seen him fight, although I understand he’s fought at higher weights and will be naturally bigger than me. I’ve had great training for this fight and feel very confident. I really haven’t left the gym in months, just taking off Sunday’s and even then I get my running in. My thinking is that fights are won in the gym and complete preparation is the key.”
When asked about his being mentioned by Dan Rafael, ESPN’s boxing writer as one of the top prospect’s in the boxing world the 23-year-old San Antonio native said, ‘It’s a great compliment, but I still have much work to do. I want to be a champion for Main Events like Fernando Vargas and Arturo Gatti. But like Fernando said while he was in town, ‘be patient, work hard and your time will come.’”
Finishing the conversation, Martinez said, “I’m looking forward to starting out this year with a bang. I might have a couple less fights than the seven I had in 2005, but I’m looking to stepping up the competition, move up to ten-rounders and climb in the rankings.”
Headlining the evening is a ten-round welterweight showdown between boxing’s hottest prospect, unbeaten Joel Julio of Monteria, Columbia, and Ugandan native Roberto “The Doctor” Kamya. Julio, turning 21 years old the day before the fight, is 25-0 with 22 knockouts, twelve of which have come in the first two rounds. Kamya, now fighting out of West Palm Beach, Florida is 15-5 with four knockouts.
Tickets, starting at $30, are on sale in advance by calling 312-226-5800. Cicero Stadium is located at 1909 S. Laramie, at the corner of 19th and Laramie, just ten minutes south of the Eisenhower Expressway and ten minutes north of the Stevenson Expressway. Doors for this evening will open at 6pm with the first bell at 7pm.
The full bout lineup for the evening is:
Joel Julio vs. Roberto Kamya, ten rounds, welterweights
Raul Martinez vs. Andres Ledesma, eight rounds, bantamweights
Miguel Hernandez vs. Butch Hajicek, eight rounds, middleweights
David Pareja vs. Derek Andrews, eight rounds, light heavyweights
Mike Gonzales vs. Tony Kinney, four rounds, lightweights
Omar Reyes vs. Luis Navarro, five rounds, featherweights
Reynaldo Reyes vs. Ricardo Swift, four rounds, middleweights
Articles of 2005
Pick ‘Em: Plenty of Big Upcoming Fights in ’06
Here’s the early call on many top matches scheduled for the first half of 2006: Happy New Year!
As the new calendar dawns, there are already a considerable amount of premium bouts on the horizon. Things don’t look to be bogged down by undetermined championships next year. In many cases the scheduled face-offs involve the best fighters in the division, or at least close enough for general bragging rights. If anybody else with proper qualifications signs up to force the issue, all the better.
It can be argued that some pairings could have taken place within a more optimal timeframe, or that some headliners carry distracting baggage, but there are certainly enough heavy hitters on deck. That nobody can deny.
It doesn’t matter whether one considers the proverbial glass half empty or half full; there’s still the same amount of juice in the vessel. It’s nice to know that even with a high number of cancellations, there will still be plenty of important contenders on tap.
With elite fighters in weight divisions from top to bottom on the agenda, it’s an equivalent to what fans in more mainstream sports expect in a consistent championship format.
Baseball fans can almost always count on a World Series. Some hoops fanatics say too much attention to playoffs distracts unmotivated NBA teams during their regular season. In college, they project Sweet Sixteens. Football fans know there’s always a Super Bowl ahead to raise advertising dollars and test the USA’s halftime morals.
So too, there is method in boxing’s current madness.
The midnight crystal ball hasn’t even been unveiled in Times Square and there are already a number of potential thrillers scheduled. Most feature contrasting personalities that almost guarantee going along for the ride will be worthwhile. Any subsequent drops will probably be cheered.
Don King jumps right out of the auld lang gate with a January 7th Showtime card featuring Zab Judah against Carlos Baldomir and Jean-Marc Mormeck in a cruiserweight unification against O’Neil Bell.
It will be the upset of the year, bar none, if Baldomir can tip the applecart before Judah gets to his scheduled super-showdown with Floyd Mayweather Jr. Meanwhile, Mormeck is emerging and should keep on rolling against Bell, who can expose him if he’s not for real.
The proverbial Big Bang starts with a January 21st rematch of one of the finest fights of ‘05, when Erik Morales goes against Manny Pacquaio for the second time on HBO pay per view. The fact that Morales was upset by Zahir Raheem after beating Pacquaio was no real loss in box-office luster. Artful Raheem will get a spot on the undercard and hope his patience is rewarded.
Everyone figures Morales and Pacquaio will pick up where they left off. Like the first time, the rematch is a pick’em contest. Management distractions and glove restrictions cited as Pacquaio’s previous problems won’t matter this time. The two are very evenly matched and their styles will make for another whapathon. It could come down to corners, where Freddie Roach gets the edge since Morales will have a new trainer for the first time since replacing his father after the Raheem lesson.
February features four of the game’s most enduring attractions, in a pair of crucial matchups.
First up, Showtime presents the Jose Luis Castillo – Diego Corrales tiebreaker from El Paso on Feb 4th. This is another pick ‘em pair, barring any sideshow. In boxing that disclaimer may be a stretch, since the sideshow is part of the act and the charm.
As far as action inside the strands goes, every round these guys have fought has been great. There’s no reason to think that pattern won’t continue. Regarding the result, Castillo keeps the pressure on as he did in the second fight, but he’ll walk into trouble from a more reserved Corrales. We still don’t know which coin to flip.
February also holds a better late than never affair between two perennial favorites as Shane Mosley collides with Fernando Vargas on the 25th. This fight could lead to a winning ticket in the Golden Boy sweepstakes for a fall bonanza against Oscar De La Hoya.
Vargas has been in tougher recently, based on comparable strength of opposition stats, but he’s seen little action. What weight they enter the ring at may have a lot to do with the result. If Vargas has to struggle at the scale, Mosley might have the battle in the bag after round nine.
It’s hard to imagine Mosley getting stopped early, but Vargas doesn’t have to hurt him, he just has to knock him down three times. With natural size, he may be able to do just that, but Mosley would have to box uncharacteristically flat.
Unless Mosley decides to heed the crowd, the most likely scenario is that Shane plays it safe, picks a few shots, and stays away enough to capture a comfortable, dull decision. An unbowed Vargas maintains his fan base but not his bettors.
March both comes in and goes out as a lion.
On March 4th Joe Calzaghe welcomes Jeff Lacy to Manchester UK for what may be the biggest blowout of the headlining bunch. Calzaghe gets the chance to prove his considerable home-based reputation once and for all, but if Lacy creams him as we expect, that glossy record will be severely tarnished.
All Calzaghe has to do is make a respectable stand, but that’s no small task against the rising Lacy. A motivated Calzaghe, songs of England ringing in his ears, could pull a big surprise if he can exploit Lacy’s relatively limited technical development, but that’s a longshot indeed.
It looks like Lacy can get by on power alone. He could soon emerge as a pound-for-pound leader. Old Joe’s hometown advantage will last about two left hooks.
March 11th has the Ides of history to beware for at least one old lion, with farewell (we’ll see) fireworks featuring Roy Jones Jr. against Bernard Hopkins. Less than two years ago they were considered untouchable all time greats. Now between them they’ve lost five in a row.
This goodbye fight is contracted at light heavyweight, for what seems like an oldies night. Hopkins is the senior at age 41 to Jones’s 37, but Roy seems more the grandpa figure, last seen hanging on against Antonio Tarver. Youth, as it were here, will prevail.
This bout was signed quickly as each principal, usually sticklers for favorable contract clauses, agreed to parity in a demonstration of businessman first and fighter second. They may both expect easy marks. How much the boys have left by the time they get down to business remains to be seen. The history books will show this as a climactic career bout between Hall of Famers.
At 175 pounds, Hopkins may be in for rude awakening. Jones may have been more thoroughly outfought recently, but he was rumbling with bigger, tougher men than Jermain Taylor or Howard Eastman. Respectable as he is, Taylor still falls short of the level of Tarver, at least for now. The difference is still fifteen pounds less pop.
It will be quite a feat if Hopkins can stay in the fight, even at Jones’s advanced age. Our stars point to Jones winning in overwhelming fashion.
On March 18th, James Toney meets Hasim Rahman in another pairing of seasoned war-horses.
Toney and Rahman already had their introductions, when they brawled in Mexico during a WBC gathering to bestow Rahman’s new belt. Between formalities, Toney got married, which could bring up the old questions about carnal training.
Let’s hope when they meet in the ring, they restore some of the fire missing from the heavyweights in ‘05. Toney might have an edge in recent form, but Rahman shows fine tuning he previously lacked. The winner might get newly “crowned’ Nicolai Valuev, an easy payday outside Germany.
Rahman could be the heavyweight that finally makes Toney look like a blown up middleweight. But anything less than a top effort will probably lead to embarrassing night for the Rock and give Toney solid claim to being the true heavyweight champ.
This might not be the most artful fight of the new season, but it could well be the most grueling, and the closest. He who’s faced the better big boys gets the nod. Advantage Rahman.
March 25 features Marco Antonio Barrera, probably the strongest overall claimant to 130 pound honors. The likely opponent is said to be always tough Jesus Chavez.
Chavez seemed rejuvenated when he met Leavander Johnson, but Johnson’s tragic death may have taken some of the steam out of thoughtful Chavez, said to have received Johnson’s family blessing to continue in Leavander’s name. That could mean a lot of inspiration. Either way, if he does meet Chavez, who hung tough with one arm against Erik Morales, Barrera won’t get any slack. The Fates say Chavez, whose wife recently served in Iraq, is a live, live underdog.
Another clash to be King of the Hill finds Floyd Mayweather Jr, arguably the game’s finest practitioner, bumping heads with Zab Judah, one of very few boxers who rivals Mayweather in speed, skills, and brashness.
Their hoedown, scheduled for April 8th, is one of the top pound-for-pound pairings in recent years. Judah will need a career best performance to have a chance of victory. That’s not to say he can’t pull it off, but currently Mayweather is in a different galaxy in terms of punching power. Slow-motion replays may be the only way to follow the flying fists once these two whirlwinds unload.
Mayweather should be around a 4-1 favorite. Judah is good enough to make taking the odds an attractive proposition, since that’s probably as good of odds as one is likely to see on Floyd for a while. Mayweather will stop Judah in his tracks.
The first half of next year is set to conclude with the star power of Oscar De La Hoya, probably against noteworthy foil Ricardo Mayorga on May 6. There could be some snags before a contract is finalized, but if it comes off count on Mayorga for promotional sound bite nastiness. One of the questions is whether or not he’ll be able to get under Oscar’s skin, and it might actually be entertaining to see the classy, model perfect De La Hoya show he’s human and freak out against the Nicaraguan maniac.
Mayorga may have burnt his best bridges already. De La Hoya has not only the boxing skill to negate Mayorga’s offense, but enough power to end it early. If Mayorga rushes in and causes a cut, De La Hoya might get ruffled enough to duck into defense and Mayorga could get a decision that goes to the cards after six rounds or so. It will be wild for as long as it lasts.
Pro boxing, like many sports, had its share of problems during 2005, but there were also many positives. Most notably, as usual, was superior and inspiring action inside the strands. Unless there’s a mass freeze-up at the top, early 2006 figures to see decisive interaction among many well-known fighters.
If even fifty per cent of the aforementioned pairings come to fruition, it’s a strong likelihood the upcoming year has at least one very positive half. Arturo Gatti, Miguel Cotto, Antonio Margarito, Brian Viloria, and Shannon Briggs, to name a few, are also on deck. No matter how you chose to look at or measure mass qualities, there’s still just as much good to be seen.
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