By Jason Kim: Middleweight contender John Duddy (29-1, 18 KO’s) is hoping he can finally land a title shot against one of the middleweight champions if he can get by unbeaten Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (41-0-1, 30 KO’s) on Saturday night when the two Top Rank fighters go at it for the WBC Silver middleweight crown at the Alamodome, in San Antonio, Texas.

Duddy, 31, has to fight a lot better than he did in his last fight against Michael Median on the undercard of the Manny Pacquiao vs. Joshua Clottey fight on March 13th at the Cowboy Stadium, in Arlington, Texas. Duddy won that fight by a 10 round split decision but looked perfectly awful throughout the fight, not throwing enough punches and getting tagged regularly by Medina.

Duddy was even staggered in the right hand from Medina in the 7th round. Duddy kept fighting in the 8th through 10th rounds, but he failed to distinguish himself as the better fighter than Medina. I personally had Medina easily winning the fight by 7 rounds to 3.

I’m frankly not surprised that Duddy was picked as an opponent for Chavez Jr. based on how bad Duddy looked against Medina. Duddy looks like a nice safe fight for Chavez Jr. and someone he can probably beat and keep moving forward to a title shot against either WBA junior middleweight champion Miguel Cotto or WBC middleweight champion Sergio Martinez.

In an article at Irishcentral.com, Duddy says “I think I am going to surprise a lot of Mexicans and beat their kid [Chavez Jr.] and hopefully move on to better things. I am looking forward to the intensity of Chavez’s fans against me when I get down here, because I think whenever I get finished, I will be converting a few to the Juan Duddy camp.”

For that to happen, Duddy has to fight harder and show more aggression than he did against Medina. Duddy appears to be trying to box more to avoid getting hit as much. However, the new style doesn’t seem to really work him because Duddy isn’t enough on offense to win his fights conclusively. At the same time, Duddy is still getting hit a lot, even when he’s on the outside.

He might as well stay in the pocket and try to slug it out with Chavez Jr. because he’s probably not going to do enough if he moves around a lot like he did against Medina. Duddy gave a lot in that fight by not staying on top of Medina and working him hard on the inside. Medina used his longer arms to club Duddy when he was at a distance, but when Duddy got close, he was able to land effectively.

The good news for Duddy is that Chavez Jr. isn’t nearly as fast or as active as Medina was. This could help Duddy by not having to worry about getting hit quite so much. But he’s going to have to be a lot more active than he was in his last fight, because Chavez Jr. will likely be landing the harder shots.

Duddy has to outwork him if he wants to get the win, because he won’t be able to land the harder shots. Chavez is pretty mediocre on the outside, and good when fighting in close. However, Chavez wears out quickly and is usually gasping for breath by the 7th round.

Duddy needs to stay close enough so that he can take over the fight in the later rounds and possibly get lucky and win a close decision. I kind of doubt it because the fight will be taking place in Texas where Chavez has a strong backing, but there’s at least a chance that Duddy can win a decision. However, I wouldn’t say that he has much of a chance of winning one against a popular fighter like Chavez, though.