A Busy Summer for John Duddy

By George Kimball

10/04/2007

A Busy Summer for John Duddy

It appears that John Duddy, who returned from a winter’s hibernation to beat Anthony Bonsante at the Madison Square Garden Theatre last month, intends to make up for lost time. Duddy (19-0) spent seven months on the shelf recuperating from cuts sustained in his win over Yory Boy Campas, but is plunging right back into action, headlining a May 18 Irish Ropes card against 16-2 Elvin Ayala of New Haven at New York’s Beacon Theatre.  

And if all goes well in that performance, the Irish middleweight will be back in action again on July 7, fighting as a pro in his native land for the first time against an as-yet-undetermined opponent in Dublin’s National Stadium – the venue in which he won the All-Ireland light-middleweight amateur title back in 2001.

Irish Ropes plans to convene a Manhattan press conference Thursday to formally announce its May 18 show at the MSG-operated Beacon. (Duddy will play the building three nights before Steely Dan takes up residence.) The 26 year-old Ayala, who looms the likely opponent, was unbeaten before suffering back-to-back losses to David Banks – at the Roxy in Boston last November, and at the Mohegan Sun in February – in his last two outings.

In addition to Duddy’s loyal Irish fans, the Beacon show figures to draw on New York’s Polish community with the inclusion of 14-0 middleweight Pawel Wolak and Polish-born, Canadian-based heavyweight Art Binkowski (15-1-3). Unbeaten New York super-middleweight Peter “Kid Chocolate” Quillin is also slated to appear, assuming he gets by veteran Jose Spearman in his April 26 fight at the Hammerstein Ballroom, as is another Duddy countryman, Westmeath light-heavyweight Aloysius Kelly.
 
(Kelly is slated to make his pro debut on Jed Weinstein’s April 26 card at the Hammerstein, which will be headlined by Edgar Santana-Harrison Cuello. Ghanaian welter Emmanuel Clottey, whose brother Joshua utterly demolished Diego Corrales last Saturday night, is also scheduled to box on the card.)

While the July Dublin date is contingent on Duddy not requiring the services of another plastic surgeon, promoter Brian Peters is already laying the plans for that one. The opposition would likely come in the form of middleweight ranked in the European Top Twenty.

The initial plan had been to send Duddy after Jim Rock’s Irish middleweight title, but Rock remains a popular-ticket seller in Ireland, and Peters wants to use the fight at the National Stadium to guage whether Duddy’s phenomenal stateside drawing power can be replicated in his home country.

There remains the possibility that Duddy could fight yet again in Ireland in late summer or early fall, sharing the bill with unbeaten European 122-pound champion Bernard Dunne at the Point Depot. Dunne, having sold out the larger venue for his last two Euro title fights, is, claims Peters, “the highest-paid super-bantamweight in the world.”

Irish Ropes’ Eddie McLoughlin had originally hoped to secure an ESPN date for Duddy’s next outing, but landing the Beacon date ruled that out. May 18 – a night before Jermain Taylor defends against Cory Spinks in Memphis – is a Friday, and beginning next week, ESPN2 is switching its weekly boxing series to a Wednesday schedule.

M

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