Middleweight contender John Duddy (27-1, 17 KO’s) defeated Michi Munoz (21-4, 14 KO’s) by an eight round unanimous decision on Saturday night at Madison Square Garden, in New York, New York. The judges scored it 80-72, 79-73, and 79-73, all for the 30-year-old Duddy. This was Duddy’s first fight since his loss to Billy Lyell in April. Duddy looked slightly different from that fight, moving more and avoiding exchanges at much as possible. However, Duddy still ended up getting tagged with some huge shots in every round.
Munoz isn’t a big puncher by any stretch of the imagination but Duddy was so wide open defensively that Munoz was able to land with big impacts when he would elect to throw punches. Most of the fight, however, Munoz just followed Duddy around without throwing much and just looked kind of like a sparring partner.
Obviously, Munoz was brought in to make Duddy look good after his loss and to get Duddy some work on his new fighting style. Munoz served the purpose that he was brought in for, but looked hardly impressive. I know he’s not considered to be a top fighter by many people, and is seen as kind of a Arturo Gatti type of fighter, but he lacks the power that Gatti possessed. It is somewhat exciting to watch Duddy fight, but with his new style of fighting, in which he moves a lot, a lot of the excitement seems to have died with his new style.
Duddy controlled the first three rounds of the fight with his jabs, left hooks to the body and straight rights to the head. Duddy looked kind of chunky, as if he’s bulked up a little. The extra weight seems to have made Duddy slower than he was before. I couldn’t see any new power from Duddy. He looked like the same moderately powered fighter that he was before.
If anything, Munoz looked like the better puncher. In the 4th, Munoz landed some really big right hands to the head of Duddy. It was a strange round. Duddy would dominate for about a minute, look decent, if not slow on his feet, and then all of a sudden Munoz would wallop Duddy with a big right or a combination. Duddy looked just as bad in that moment as he had in getting beaten by Lyell and torn apart by Walid Smichet last year.
Duddy out-landed Munoz in the 5th round, but again was hit with some massive right hands – both overhand shots and uppercuts to the head. Duddy’s defense was poor, like usual and the only way he could avoid getting hit was when Duddy stayed on the move.
In the 6th round, Duddy stayed on the move and would stop on occasion and throw a quick right hand or left hook. When Duddy would stay in one place for too long, Munoz would make him pay by landing a huge right hand or two. Duddy’s right eye began to sell in this round. Munoz also looked beat up, his faced read around the eyes and swollen from the many shots he was eating from Duddy.
In the 7th, Duddy used more movement around the ring to avoid getting hit by Munoz’s big shots. Duddy looked good in this round for the most part. He’d stop every once in awhile and land a hard right hand and then get back on the move. Munoz landed a few hard right hands late in the round that got Duddy’s attention.
When Munoz would land, it looked bad how cleanly his shots would land. Duddy just doesn’t seem able to block punches or slow them down any. He has gloves up, but he seems poor at picking off shots while there coming at him. With his poor defense, he might as well keep his hands down by his sides.
In the 8th round, Duddy and Munoz went toe-to-toe with Munoz getting the far better of the action. He tagged Duddy with three monstrous right hands all in a row late in the round. I was surprised that Duddy stayed on his feet because the shots were huge and snapped Duddy’s head back as if he was hit by a sledgehammer.
It looked a lot like Duddy’s 10th round against journeyman Matt Vanda in February. In that fight, Duddy had dominated the bout until late in the 10th when Vanda suddenly opened up with a flurry of big shots that hurt Duddy. To his credit, Duddy kept firing back at Munoz until the final bell.
The win over Munoz keeps Duddy in contention for a fight against Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. next year. Right now, I’d have to pick Chavez to win that fight because Duddy looked really bad against Munoz and I doubt he could stand up to the powerful shots from Chavez Jr.
—
Wolak defeats Nascimento
Once beaten light middleweight prospect Pawel Wolak (25-1, 17 KO’s) stopped Carlos Nascimento (24-2, 20 KO’s) in a 5th round stoppage. Wolak hurt Nascimento in the 5th round with a big right hand and then dropped him with a short left to the head. Nascimento got up immediately put continued to take nonstop punishment for the remainder of the round. Nascimento’s right eye was cut on the side in the 4th round.
Wolok, 28, put a lot of pressure on Nascimento throughout the fight and never seemed to give him much of a break. Nascimento, 31, tried to keep up with the pace that Wolok set but he started to show signs of wearing down in the 4th round when his work rate dropped off. Wolok then stood in front of him and bombarded him with shots for the entire round and into the 5th.