By Aaron Klein: Undefeated middleweight contender John Duddy (24-0, 17 KOs) is apparently still in the running for a potential bout with WBC/WBO middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik for later this year, according to the website The Irish Independent. Duddy’s promoter, Bob Arum, had this to say, “There’s still a chance of Duddy meeting Pavlik for the belts later in this year or early in 2009.” Additionally, Duddy, 28, has switched trainers, the articles states, dismissing his American trainer Don Turner and moving to trainer Pat Burns, who also trains Jermain Taylor.
It’s unclear why Duddy has decided to make the move, but one would guess that it could have been due to Duddy’s recent disappointing performance against Walid Smichet, in which Duddy won by a 10-round majority decision but took a major pounding by Smichet. At the end of the fight, Duddy’s face was a red masque of blood, with his left eye cut badly, later requiring 23 stitches to close the deep cuts. But the worse part of all, however, was that Duddy despite winning the fight lost out on a chance to fight Pavlik on June 7th. Instead, Pavlik with be fighting Gary Lockett on June 7th rather than Duddy.
By Robert Cavender: Going into his last fight with the tough Walid Smichet on February 23rd, undefeated Irish middleweight John Duddy (24-0, 17 KOs) had been on the cusp of a superstardom, on the verge of fighting middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik for a June 7th bout at New York’s Madison Square Garden. Unfortunately for Duddy, he seemed to be looking for ahead of his opponent, appearing to be thinking of his fight with Pavlik, which would be earning Duddy a huge payday, instead of the fighter in front of him. As it happened, Duddy took a tremendous about of punishment from Smichet in the first five rounds of the fight, getting cut in a couple of places on his face which required extensive amounts of stitches to repair. 
By Tim Williams: In what was supposed to have been an easy set up fight for a potential shot at WBC/WBO middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik, undefeated Irish middleweight John Duddy (24-0, 17 KOs) won an ugly 10-round majority decision over Tunisian Walid Smichet (17-4-3, 13 KOs) on Saturday night at New York’s Madison Square Garden. The final judges’ scores were 95-95, 98-92 and 98-92. However, if it weren’t for Smichet tiring out after the 3rd round, Duddy would have very likely have been stopped either on cuts or knocked out.