By Jim Carran: After having fought mostly soft opposition in his first 23 fights, undefeated middleweight John Duddy (23-0, 17 KOs) appears to be one fight away from finally taking on a legitimate top level opponent when he likely will be facing WBO/WBC middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik in June 2008. Though nothing has been confirmed at this time, Duddy, 27, is the leading canditate for the shot at Pavlik’s belt. Before his likely bout with Pavlik, however, Duddy must first get by Walid Smichet (17-3-3, 13 KOs), whom he faces on February 23rd, on the undercard of Wladimir Klitschko vs. Sultan Ibragimov unification bout at New York’s Madison Square Garden.
Smichet, a good puncher, has little chance of pulling off the upset of Duddy, and the match reeks of careful matchmaking. I can’t says I blame Duddy for not wanting to blow a chance at a shot at Pavlik, even if he has little possibility of beating the undefeated champion.
What’s odd, however, is that Duddy, ranked #3 in the WBO, hasn’t really fought anyone, aside from Howard Eastman, who Duddy defeated by a 10-round unanimous decision in his last bout on December 8th, 2007. That fight would have meant something if it had taken place five years ago when Eastman was still at the top of his game, but by the time that Duddy had fought him, Eastman, now 37, had lost four out of his last six fights, and was clearly not the same fighter as he had been earlier in his career.
That’s basically it for top opponents, unless you count Luis Ramon “Yory Boy” Campas, 36 at the of their fight in September 2006, who almost beat Duddy. However, Duddy came on in the later rounds of the fight to win a hard-fought 10 round unanimous decision over Campas. The fact that Duddy had to struggle to defeat Campas, a fighter a divison over his natural fighting weight, would seem to indicate that Duddy is perhaps more of a B-level fighter than a true A-level. If this is indeed true, it would follow that Duddy perhaps doesn’t rate as high as he is currently ranked.
It wouldn’t be the first time that this has happened, if this turns out to be the case. It’s disappointing, though, because you normally would think that a fighter rated as high as number #3 in one of the ranking bodies, would have to have fought at least one really good fighter to get there. However, Duddy hasn’t taken on anyone that I personally consider to be a top level fighter, and no amount of persuading by others will make me believe otherwise. If Duddy had beaten someone like Joe Greene or Andy Lee, then, yes, I’d be on his bandwagon, but he hasn’t. Instead, he’s struggled to beat Campas, and had an equally tough time with 37 year-old Eastman.
I guess to answer my question about whether or not Duddy is ready to step it up, I’d have to say ‘no.’ But will? Yes, it appears all but academic at this point. I don’t like his chances again Pavlik, as I’ve previously mentioned. I think Duddy would be better off focusing on WBA middleweight champion Felix Sturm, whom I consider to be the weakest by far of the three middleweight champions. At least with Sturm, Duddy would have decent chance at winning. That’s not to say that he would, because I doubt seriously that he could beat a fighter like Sturm, especially if it were to be fought in Germany. But with Sturm, Duddy won’t have to deal with potentially getting badly knocked out, which is very likely to happen when/if Duddy takes on Pavlik. With Sturm, of course, there’s much less money than with Pavlik, but then again, Duddy would have a good chance at winning the fight, and taking away Sturm’s belt. He can’t say the same thing about Pavlik, however.