By Manuel Perez: Undefeated light middleweight contender John Duddy (25-0, 17 KOs) is finally returning back to the ring on February 21st to fight journeyman Matt Vanda (39-8, 22 KOs) in a scheduled 10-round bout at the Madison Square Garden, in New York, New York. Duddy, 29, will have been out of action for eight months by the time he fights Vanda.
Duddy had been planning on fighting Verno Phillips and Ronald Hearns but both fights never materialized, leaving Duddy with a lot of wasted time in his career. However, he still remains ranked in the number #3 spot in the World Boxing Council light middleweight division, close enough that he could possibly get a title shot against either Sergio Martinez or Vernon Forrest in 2009 or 2010.
Vanda, 30, recently was defeated by Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. in a 10-round decision in November. The two had fought four months earlier, and this time Vanda had fought well enough to lose by a controversial 10-round decision. Vanda looked good and gave Chavez Jr. and a lot of problems, winning many of the later rounds of the fight after Chavez wore out due to an illness.
Duddy’s career has been in a stall since taking a pounding in his 10-round majority decision over Walid Smichet in February 2008. Duddy was rocked early in the fight by Smichet, a C-level fighter, and was badly cut around both eyes requiring 33 stitches to repair the damage afterwards. Going into the fight, Duddy was expected to use the fight as a springboard for a good-paying title shot against WBC/WBO middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik in June.
However, in looking so mediocre against Smichet, Duddy was taken off the table as a potential opponent for Pavlik, who instead fought Gary Lockett and destroyed him with ease. Duddy would have very likely been easily beaten as well, but he would have been paid well for taking the beating.
After the fight, Duddy was steered into much easier waters and fed another journeyman in Charles Howe, who Duddy defeated with an easy 10-round decision in June 2008. However, Duddy still showed defensive liabilities, and was hit far too much from Howe given his talent level. Duddy hurt Howe a number of times in the fight but wasn’t able to take him out. Howe had previously been stopped in the 1st round in his fight prior to his fight with Duddy, and was stopped again in the 1st round in his fight just after his fight with Duddy.
Duddy should be able to easily win this fight, based on his better jab and right hand power. However, that was supposed to be the case against Smichet as well and Duddy ended up struggling to get the win. But when Duddy is fighting defensively, he’s hard to beat and I suspect he’ll be trying to avoid getting hit often by Vanda and made to look bad. Duddy needs to shine in this fight because of the wide gulf in talent between him and Vanda.
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