By Eric Thomas: Recently I’ve been wondering about why and how undefeated Irish middleweight John Duddy (23-0, 17 KOs) could be ranked so highly despite his lack of top level opposition. As of now, Duddy, 28, is ranked #3 in the WBC, #4 in the WBA, #11 in the IBF and #3 in the WBO. Those are extraordinarily good rankings for a fighter that has yet to really prove himself against top level opposition.
Though Duddy has taken on fighters like Howard Eastman, Anthony Bonsante, Dupre Strickland and Luis Ramon “Yory Boy” Campas, that’s a far cry from testing yourself against the true best of the middleweight division like Winky Wright, Joe Greene, Andy Lee, Peter Quillin and Jermain Taylor. Duddy, however, has been shown on ESPN back as far as two years ago when he had to struggle to defeat Campas. This weekend, Duddy will be fighting on the undercard of Wladimir Klitschko vs. Sultan Ibragimov at Madison Square Garden. Duddy’s opponent will be Walid Smichet. Can’t say I’ve ever heard of him before, but I’m not particularly surprised that he’s been picked as Duddy’s opponent.
As of now, Duddy is being considered for a June 7th bout against WBO/WBC middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik. Certainly that’s good for Duddy if he can get the fight, but as far finding the best possible opponent for him, I think Pavlik could do well to look elsewhere. I could see the interest in Duddy if he had actually beaten one of the very top fighters, someone in the class of Greene, Taylor, Lee or Quillin, but he hasn’t.
In fact, Duddy hasn’t looked good against the two best fighters that he’s fought – Campas and Eastman – which is very telling. Both of those guys are at the tail end of their career, whereas Duddy is considered to be in his prime years. If he is all what some people seem to think he is, wouldn’t you think that he’d be able to easily dispatch either of them? I’d have settled for him just soundly beating them by a unanimous decision, but that wasn’t the case.
Duddy had to fight tooth and nail to beat them. This would seem to suggest that once Duddy does face a quality fighter like 25 year-old Pavlik, it will most likely end up in a total blowout. This is why I feel that fighters ranked in the top #5 should at least have been another fighter of that caliber in order to be ranked that high. At least by doing it that way, we get less of a case of someone that hasn’t proven himself. This would help in that it would save the boxing fans from having to pay to see a hyped fighter get badly blown out by one of the champions.
I could be wrong about Duddy, of course. He may indeed be all what people say he is, but if that’s the case I must be going blind. In the fights that I’ve seen of him, his last six bouts against mostly average quality fighters, Duddy has looked anything but top level. Overall, he appears to be a good B-level fighter, the type that put on a good show for the fans, and takes a beating in the process.
He’s a tough, can take a good shot and would be a problem for a fighter at that level. However, to elevate him to the top of the division seems way premature, and something that he isn’t ready for. At 28, I can’t say when or if he ever will be ready to take on the best in the middleweight division, but as of now, I see him as more hype than anything else.
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