John Duddy To Move Down To Light Middleweight For Bout Against Verno Phillips?

By Boxing News - 07/01/2008 - Comments

duddy575555.jpgBy Eric Thomas: In the latest boxing news, undefeated top middleweight contender John Duddy (25-0, 17 KOs) is reportedly considering a move down to the light middleweight division to challenge International Boxing Federation champion Verno Phillips. If it seems rather odd and out of place for a fighter like Duddy whose currently ranked #2 in both the WBC & WBO middleweight division to suddenly make a move down to the junior middleweight division, you’ve got a good point. However, Duddy’s trainer apparently feels that Duddy would be better off at the lower light middleweight division, where he would be able to match up better with the smaller fighters compared to the middleweights.

To be sure, as a middleweight, Duddy is considered to be of average size, not nearly as big as some of the larger middleweights like Kelly Pavlik. More importantly, perhaps, is Duddy’s tendency to cut up in fights, which is likely to be an even bigger problem in the middleweight division where the punchers have more power and weight behind their punches than in the junior middleweight division. However, if Duddy does make this move, he could be losing out on a huge payday against middleweight champion Pavlik, who has been considering a bout with Duddy for the past year or so. That would be a fight that Duddy wouldn’t likely be able to find in the junior middleweight division, which is lacking in big stars at this moment other than Oscar De La Hoya and the aging Ricardo Mayorga.

It may turn out that Duddy might be better off as a middleweight, for there are more than a couple of power punchers in the junior middleweight class, namely James Kirkland and Alfredo Angulo. Either of them would be big problems for Duddy because of their power, and unless Duddy could resist his slugging instincts, he’d probably not make into the 6th round with either of them. In the middleweight division, however, there’s really a lack of quality fighters at this time, other than the aforementioned Pavlik. Duddy would seem to match up well with the top fighters like Felix Sturm, Arthur Abraham, Joe Greene, Marco Rubio and Winky Wright.

For that reason, and because of the lack of talent in the junior middleweight division, I think Duddy is making a big mistake by moving down (if he does decide on doing this). He has good tools – excellent jab, fast hands, good chin and decent power. That’s a lot more than most of the top middleweights have going for them. He just needs to work on using his jab more, moving his head when coming inside and throwing more combinations. No doubt he can’t continue to stand and trade in front of the better fighters and expect to win like he has in the past. His fight against Walid Smichet proved that.

Duddy looked considerably improved in his last fight on Saturday night against Charles Howe, showing improvement in his use of his jab and with speedy combinations. In that area, Duddy looked nothing like he had in his past fights, in which he rarely jabbed his opponents and threw predictable 1-2 combinations all night long. Against Howe, Duddy threw lightning combinations, not worrying about power, just throwing fast, short combinations like Joe Calzaghe often does in his fights. Duddy, however, didn’t slap with his punches like Calzaghe, instead using good form with his shots.

Now, if Duddy can learn how to avoid punches like Calzaghe, then he may be really onto something. Howe had little problem landing right hands against Duddy, on the rare occasions that he let his hands go. This would seem to suggest that Duddy still has his work cut out for him. His new trainer Pat Burns is a good start, since he seems to be doing a good job with curbing Duddy’s tendency to slug it out, but it’s still hard to say how much of an effect he’s had on Duddy because Howe was not a good test.

Ideally, Duddy needs a second trainer, maybe, someone like an Enzo Calzaghe, who can train him on movement. Enzo has done a good job with many of his fighters, most of them who came to him with limited ability and he was still able to mold them into champions. At 29, Duddy needs to move quickly, however, because he doesn’t have a lot of time to make the needed changes in his game to iron out his several glaring problems.



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