By Jim Dower: Well, I knew it was going to happen sooner or later once he stepped up against some quality opposition. I just didn’t think that middleweight Billy Lyell (19-7, 3 KOs) was going to be the one to do it. Earlier tonight, Lyell shockingly defeated top middleweight contender John Duddy (26-1, 17 KOs) by a 10-round split decision at the Prudential Center, in Newark, New Jersey. The final judges’ scores were 96-94, 98-92 for Lyell, and 97-93 for Duddy.
Duddy was using this fight as a stepping stone to a title shot, and it was supposed to be a relatively easy fight. I guess someone should have told Lyell, because he jumped all over the slow moving Duddy and overwhelmed him with punches from the first round on.
Duddy tried to keep the fight at a distance, but Lyell was having none of it and continually worked his way to the inside where he pounded Duddy with hooks to the body and head. Say what you will about Duddy’s good skills on the outside, he looked like a horrible inside fighter tonight and wasn’t able to keep up with the busier Lyell.
The loss pretty much rules out any title hopes for the 29-year-old Duddy, who had hopes of getting a shot at WBO/WBC middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik. Duddy still might be able to get a title shot against one of the champions due to his popularity, but he won’t be able to get in position for awhile to become a mandatory for any of the champions due to this loss.
It shouldn’t be all that of a shock that Duddy was beaten, because only last year Duddy came within an eyelash of being beaten by journeyman Walid Smichet, escaping with a controversial 10-round majority decision over the Canadian based Smichet. Duddy’s face was nearly torn apart by Smichet in that fight, requiring extensive stitches to repair the cuts.
In other action on the card, light middleweight Kassim Ouma (26-6-1, 16 KOs) was defeated by a 10-round split decision by Gabriel Rosado (11-3, 6 KOs). The final judges’ scores were 97-93, 96-94 and 96-94. The loss is far from an upset, because Rosado is an excellent fighter and is just entering the prime of his career.
Ouma, 30, hasn’t looked really good in the ring since beating Kofi Jantua four years ago in 2005. Going into tonight’s fight, Ouma had been beaten three consecutive times.
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