By Chris Williams: Keeping up with his tradition of facing lower level opposition, light middleweight John Duddy (26-0, 17 KOs) will be facing journeyman Billy Lyell (18-7, 3 KOs) on April 24th at the Prudential Center, in Newark, New Jersey. Duddy, 29, is reaching the critical point in his six year career where if things go right for him, he may get a title shot against WBC/WBO middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik later in the year.
Before he can get to there, however, Duddy is going to have to get by Lyell first and not going get by him, but be able to do it in style without struggling like Duddy often does when facing C class opponents.
Lyell, 24, though not exactly the more powerful or talented fighter that Duddy could have found, he is much more experienced than Duddy in terms of experience against better competition. So far, has faced – and lost – James Kirkland, David Lopez, Vanes Martirosyan and Yory Boy Campas.
In other words, a kind of murderer’s row of light middleweight fighters and ones that Duddy would be hard pressed to find more one victory out of the bunch. Duddy has previously beaten Campas already, earning a close 12-round decision in a bloody, grueling fight three years ago at Madison Square Garden in New York.
I’d like to think that Duddy has improved since then, but I doubt that he’s gotten enough to get by Campas without another tough struggle. In the case of Kirkland, Martirosyan and Lopez, I have my doubts that Duddy would be good enough to beat any of them.
That’s why it’s perhaps best that Duddy face a guy like Lyell on April 24th rather than a better fighter, because someone with good skills might erase his unbeaten record and foul up his chance for a fight against Pavlik in the Summer.
Duddy is coming off of a one-sided 10-round decision over Matt Vanda on February 21st. It was fight where Duddy showed off his new boxing skills and a seemingly endless supply of patience as he resisted his urge to brawl with Vanda, and stayed back on the outside mostly jabbing.
In the 10th round, Duddy gave into his brawling instincts and briefly slugged it out with Vanda, taking a number of big hits to the head and getting stunned briefly. Duddy came back at the end of the round, smiling as he slugged it out with Vanda, but once again Duddy showed how vulnerable he is against any fighter with halfway decent power.
The good news is that Lyell has no such power, nothing like Vanda, who didn’t have much power either, and won’t present Duddy with nearly the same threat as a fighter like Vanda or Walid Smichet did. The bad news is that Lyell has a great chin, a good worth ethic and likes to brawl with his opponents, which could potentially turn this fight into a war if Duddy isn’t able to control himself
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