By Dave Lahr: Unbeaten light middleweight John Duddy (25-0, 17 KOs) faces the limited but game Matt Vanda (39-8, 22 KOs) on Saturday night in a 10-round bout at the Madison Square Garden, in New York, New York. Limited is a good term that could equally be used for the 29-year-old Duddy, who comes from Ireland is now trained in American by Pat Burns. In winning his first 25 fights, Duddy has looked anything but impressive, showing poor hand speed, limited power, footwork that could best be described as plodding, and a bad tendency to brawl with his opponents even when the circumstance calls for the opposite.
Duddy fights like a throwback fighter from the 40s and 50s, going right at his opponents in a straight line and trying to overpower them at close range. The fact that he’s remained unbeaten through his six year pro career says more for the level of his competition than his actual abilities.
Still, with a win over Vanda on Saturday night, Duddy may find himself next in line for a shot at the winner of WBC/WBO middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik’s fight with Marco Antonio Rubio on Saturday. That’s a lot of pressure for Duddy, who already blew a chance once before for a fight with Pavlik by getting sliced up and nearly knocked out by Canadian journeyman Walid Smichet in February 2008.
Although Duddy was able to salvage the fight with Smichet, coming back after being stunned in the 2nd and ultimately defeating him by a 10-round majority decision. However, because of the way that Duddy was battered around in the first three rounds by Smichet, and badly cut around his eyes, promoter Bob Arum opted to put Pavlik in with Gary Lockett instead in June 2008.
Pavlik ended up taking him out in the 3rd round, possibly as easily as he would have beaten Duddy if given the chance. Nothing has changed since then, except that Pavlik has now been beaten by Bernard Hopkins, and there are fewer stars in the middleweight division to force feed him in order to make him look good.
Arthur Abraham, the IBF middleweight champion, looks to be the best option, but the fight is still in the dream stages right now and not something that likely will happen anytime soon due to Abraham fighting out of Germany, which would make it hard to negotiate a contract because of the need to please fans and advertisers from both countries who would want the fight to take place in the evening rather than late in the morning or in the afternoon.
For that reason, Duddy finds himself in an enviable position, because if he can defeat Vanda without stumbling like he did against Smichet, Duddy can find himself in a good paying title shot against Pavlik in the Summer.
Duddy is said to have improved since taking on new trainer Burns, and if that’s indeed the case, I still haven’t seen the improvements yet. Duddy looked just as mediocre as always in his last fight, a 10-round unanimous decision over Charles Howe in June 2008. From what I saw, Duddy looked just as hittable, weak, and brawling as he ever was in the past. Maybe brawled a little less, but not enough for it to make any difference.
Vanda, 30, has been unlucky in two of his last three fights, losing twice to Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. and getting robbed in the 1st fight, a 10-round decision loss in July. Vanda fought Chavez again in November, and this time Chavez won much easier, controlling the fight with power shots. Vanda’s style, lack of power and foot work is not unlike Duddy. The main difference being that Duddy has a better jab and slightly better power, but beyond that, both fighters are very similar in style and ability.
Look for Duddy to win this fight with his better jab and sharper combinations. It won’t be easy, but I think he’ll have too many skills for Vanda to cope with and will end up beating him by a unanimous decision.