Unbeaten Irish middleweight John Duddy may have to put his ambitions of challenging for Kelly Pavlik’s world title on ice for now.
Despite stretching his unbeaten run to 24, Duddy took a controversial majority decision against journeyman Walid Smichet at Madison Square Garden in the early hours of last Sunday morning.
Duddy was being earmarked to challenge Pavlik at the same venue on 7 June, but Pavlik’s promoter Bob Arum has indicated that he may look elsewhere for a middleweight for now after Duddy sustained a deep cut over his left eye and a big dent in his reputation against Smichet in New York.
The decision of two of the judges to award the fight to Duddy drew boos from the crowd, and Tunisia-born Smichet was less than happy with the verdict, claiming that he felt he had done enough to win after continuously breaching Duddy’s suspect defence to subject the Derryman to a torrid time, particularly in the early rounds.
New York-based Duddy, 28, admitted after the 10-rounder that he wasn’t at his best, adding he felt he was happy that he won but disappointed with his performance in front of thousands of his own fans in his sixth fight at the Garden.
Ohio-born Pavlik, unbeaten in 33 fights (29 by knockout), was at ringside for last weekend’s fight, as was Duddy’s fellow Irish middleweight Andy Lee, who said that he felt that Duddy was a better boxer than his performance against Smichet suggested.
“Smichet had nothing to lose and came out with all guns blazing in the early rounds trying to cause an upset, which he nearly did. But John came more into it as the fight progressed although I have seen him box a lot better than this.” said Lee.
Meanwhile, Duddy’s manager and promoter Eddie McLoughlin met with Bob Arum on Friday last, but it is understood that the meeting proved to be inconclusive – a situation unlikely to improve following Duddy’s lacklustre performance.
Duddy and Smichet fought on the Wladimir Klitsch-ko/Sultan Ibragimov undercard. Klitschko, who had Irish middleweight Andy Lee’s coach Emanuel Steward working his corner, won the IBF and WBO unification bout after earning a unanimous decision (119–110, 117–111, 118–110).
Overall it was a good night at the Garden for Steward and Lee and Detroit’s Kronk Gym, as Lee’s stable-mate Johnathon Banks stretched his unbeaten run to 19 on the same card, following a first-round demolition of ex-world champion Imamu Mayfield.
Elsewhere, a 10-man Irish squad arrived on the Adriatic coast last Monday ahead of the weigh-in and draw for the penultimate Olympic qualifier for European boxers, which began in Pescara, Italy that evening.
John Joe McDonagh, from the Brosna club in Offaly, flew out to join the Irish squad on Saturday after being named as a replacement for welterweight Roy Sheehan, who broke his left hand in sparring at the Irish team’s training camp in Perugia, Italy eight days before.
According to Gary Keegan, director of the Irish Amateur Boxing Association’s (IABA) High Performance Unit, there is a great spirit in the Irish camp.
He said: “We had three very productive training camps over the last few weeks in Donegal, Dublin and Italy and we got an incredible amount of work done.
“It is going to be very tough here in Pescara this week, as some of the top boxers from various European nations did not secure Olympic qualification at the World Championships in Chicago last November.
“Some of the weight categories will be very competitive out here, but there is a great spirit in the Irish squad and we are quietly confident that we can do well.”
Bantamweights, featherweight, welterweights and middleweights can secure Olympic qualification by reaching their finals, or by reaching the semi-finals and winning a box-off with the other beaten semi-finalists.
All other weight categories must reach their respective finals to book their places at the Beijing Olympics. The finals and semi-final box-offs will take place on 1 March in Pescara.
Irish light flyweight Paddy Barnes, who has already qualified for the Olympics, left the Irish camp yesterday to prepare for a Multi Nations tournament in Croatia in early March.
In other news, Irish world and European lightweight champ Katie Taylor moved up to light welterweight and forced Sweden’s Klara Svensson into two standing counts en route to a commanding victory in Cork last Saturday night.
Taylor, from the Bray Boxing Club, beat Svensson – ranked number two in the world at 63kg – at the Loreto Sports Complex in Fermoy, taking a 27–7 verdict.
Debbie Rogers and Christiana McMahon also chalked up wins on the Ireland-versus-Sweden card, but despite brave performances from Nicola Cody, Ciara Noonan, Marsha Halpin and Laura O’Neill, the Irish selection were edged out 4–3 by the Swedes on Leeside.
Meanwhile, England beat Ireland 5–3 at the Sligo Community Centre last Friday night to claim the two-day senior international series 10–8 on aggregate.
The international arrived just 24 hours after both nations drew 5–5 at the Castlecourt Hotel in Westport, Co Mayo.
Willie Casey, Anthony Cacace and Willie McLoughlin all won their bouts for Ireland in Sligo.
Casey took a countback verdict against Martin Ward, while McLoughlin stopped Adam Ismail in round one. Cacace also impressed in a tight lightweight decider with Chris Higgs, which the Holy Trinity man won by a three-point margin.
But Derek Thorpe was edged out on a 3–2 majority judges’ decision after his four-rounder with Kevin Satchell ended all square after a countback. And Martin McDonagh, Tommy Dwyer, Jimmy Sweeney and Michael Mullaney also suffered reversals for an Irish side that had named six changes from the squad in Mayo.
