BELFAST, Northern Ireland --- Before a raucous hometown crowd in an atmosphere that made St. Patrick’s Day in New York seem like a polite little tea party, Ireland’s John Duddy made a triumphant return to his native Northern Ireland, posting a hard-fought decision over two-time world title challenger Howard Eastman Saturday night at the King’s Hall in Belfast.
What made Duddy’s performance all the more impressive was that a guy who had built his early reputation as a one-punch knockout artist had to turn boxer to do it. Eastman is a wily old veteran who was celebrating his 37th birthday, and while he unveiled his repertoire of tricks to present the Irish middleweight with some problems early on, over the final four rounds Duddy fought behind his jab and became a boxer.
After two strong opening rounds by Duddy, Eastman asserted himself over the next several stanzas, frustrating Duddy by tying him up and pounding away with his fists, his elbows, a couple of well-placed shoulders, and at least once, his head.
By the end of the third round, Duddy was bleeding from a gash along the corner of his right eyelid, the result of what he insisted was a head-butt. (If so, referee Sean Russell did not acknowledge it; in fact, while Russell warned Eastman about holding and hitting on a number of occasions, he never looked close to taking a point.)
John Duddy bleeding in a fight has become such a regular occurrence that it by now qualifies as dog-bites-man news, but on his occasion cut-man George Mitchell was back in New York, suffering from gallstones, leaving late sub Lenny DeJesus the medic in the corner. Fortunately, the cut never got much worse and wasn’t at all factor in the fight.
On the other hand, the way Eastman was winging punches from awkward angles and eluding Duddy’s bombs did threaten to become a factor, particularly in the sixth, when he landed a right that snapped the Irishman’s head back.
When Duddy returned to the corner, trainer Don Turner prevailed upon him to stop headhunting and start boxing.
“Kid, use your jab and stop loading up!” ordered Turner, and Duddy did.
“He used to be a boxer, but they tried to him into a slugger.” said Turner, who took over the Duddy corner from Harry Keitt earlier this year. “I’ve been working on turning him back into a boxer.”
The spectacular knockout that characterized Duddy’s early career wasn’t going to come on this night, but on the other hand, the Irishman showed unexpected elusiveness and head movement that allowed him to slip most of Eastman’s punches while setting up combinations of his own. Most of the punches Eastman did land were glancing ones, and apart from the right hand in the sixth, the two hardest blows Eastman landed all night came when he brought his shoulder up under Duddy’s chin.
“Eastman was cute,” said Turner afterward. “Very cute.”
Russell, the only scoring official, awarded Duddy the decision by a 96-94 margin. The referee’s scorecard concurred that of Boxing Talk. Duddy is now 23-0, while Eastman’s loss birthday – dropped his career record to 42-6.
All in all, you might have to say that Eastman was the most formidable opponent Duddy has faced to date.
“He took John to school,” said Irish Ropes matchmaker Jim Borzell, “and that’s exactly what he was there for.”
“Yory Boy Campas probably hit me more times than Eastman did, or at least he landed more solid punches,” said Duddy, who credited Turner with the improved defense he displayed in this one.
“When you think about it, we’ve been together for three weeks here, two weeks there, maybe two months all told in the past three months, and I think you can see the difference,” said Duddy.
The venerable old King’s Hall has hosted boxing for over 70 years, but the 6,000 who jammed the place to the rafters for Brian Peters’ card Saturday night produced a electric atmosphere unmatched in this boxing hotbed since the days of Barry McGuigan.
Duddy was visited after the fight by Dr. Michael Webb, who stitched the cut in the dressing room. While as Duddy cuts go it wasn’t particularly severe, but it was deep enough that it will probably keep him from sparring until after the holidays. The expectation is that Duddy will be right back in the gym by January, preparing for a February television date in the states.
No, not, as had been suggested earlier, on the Feb. 23 Klitschko-Ibragimov card. Rather, it now appears that Duddy may wind up (probably against Matt Vanda) in the co-feature of the Feb. 2 Showtime card headlined by Oleg Maskaev’s WBC heavyweight title defense against interim champion Samuel Peter.
The 10-round main event was preceded by a pair of 12-round fights for some sort of IBF extraterrestrial titles, although only one of them lasted that long.
Unbeaten junior welter Paul McCloskey did little to discourage predictions that he is a future world champion-in-waiting, fashioning an impressive 4th-round TKO of the usually durable Bulgarian Toncho Tonchev.
Tonchev, who fought Oscar De La Hoya in the 1992 Olympics, has since won two European titles, and at one time owned a WBU title as well, but he was no match for the Irish southpaw, who simply wore him down with an attack that featured two-fisted body punching punctuated by sneaky uppercuts.
McCloskey, in fact, landed at least 30 shots that were much harder than the left that finally felled the Bulgarian veteran. Tonchev appeared to teeter for a moment before falling over sideways, and referee Mark Green wisely stopped it at 2:46 of the round. McCloskey is now 17-0, Tonchev 37-7.
Italian Giammario Grassellini scored an unpopular split decision over Lurcan’s Stephen Haughian to retain his IBF Intercontinental welterweight belt in another 12-rounder on the card, which was televised both in Ireland (RTE) and Great Britain (BBC).
Although the previously unbeaten Haughian, now 12-1, appeared to outwork the visitor over the last half of the fight, two judges – Briton Mark Green and Grassellini’s countryman Perguio Ruggieri – both gave the edge 115-113 to the Italian, while German judge Manfred Kueohler had the same score for the Irishman.
The crowd reacted with predictable outrage over what did appear to be a pretty bad decision. (Boxing Talk had Haughian ahead by a comfortable 116-112.) Grassellini is now 17-1, and with the controversy may have earned himself a date with McCloskey.
“That’s the fight I want, anyway,” said John Breen, who trains both McCloskey and Haughian.
Unbeaten Cavan junior welter Andrew Murray won the vacant Irish title when a fourth-round clash of heads brought his bout against Belfast’s Jamie Gorman to a premature conclusion.
Murray, who had won all three completed rounds on the scorecard of referee David Irving, was deemed unable to continue after the accidental butt left blood streaming from a gash above his left eye. Murray went to 9-0 in assuming the Irish 140-pound title recently vacated by the Oklahoma-based Oisin Fagan. Gorman is now 8-11.
In the other Irish title fight on the card, Ciaran Healy upset Lee Murtagh with a fifth-round knockout in their scheduled 10-rouunder to win the vacant Irish 154-pound championship. In his last outing, Healy had been stopped by Andy Lee after four rounds in Dublin, so the Belfast result probably speaks more to the state of Irish junior middleweights than to the winner’s punching prowess.
Healy (7-6) had floored Murtagh with a left hook a round earlier, and by the firth the Englishman’s left eye was beginning to swell. The pivotal punch, a left, was little more than a jab that Healy turned over at the last second, but it caught Murtagh squarely in the jaw, sent him stutter-stepping sideways, and ultimately led him to seek relief on the canvas, where he was counted out by referee Emile Tiedt at 1:55 of the round. The 34 year-old Murtagh is 23-10 after the defeat.
Featherweight Martin Lindsay remained unbeaten at 10-0 with decision over 39 year-old Venezuelan journeyman Edison Torres (41-33-4), with referee David Irving scoring it 79-75 for the Irishman. Lindsay, who holds the IBF ‘Youth’ title, now boxes out of Canada, having migrated there after graduating from the University of Ulster last spring.
Fighting for the first time as a pro, Omagh junior middleweight Damian Taggart posted a 40-36 shutout over Peter Dunn. Dunn is one of those legendary English opponents: It was his 43rd in a row without a win, but he hasn’t been stopped in any of them. Dunn is now 11-88 overall.
English light-heavyweight Caine Brodie also made an impressive pro debut, easily outpointing Latvian opponent Andrei Tosiths. Referee Paul McCullagh awarded Brodie every round in scoring it 40-36. Tolstihs is now 0-5-1.
Another four-rounder saw unbeaten Northern Ireland junior middle Willie Thompson go the distance for the fourth time in as many pro fights in outpointing his English opponent Duncan Cottier. For Cottier (3-34-2) it was his 22nd loss on the trot, but he appears to be nearly as resilient as Peter Dunn, not having been stopped since he was TKO’d by Kell Brook on the Joe Calzaghe-Sakio Bika card in Manchester.
In the walk-out bout, Queens-based Irish light-heavyweight Alo Kelly stopped Latvian Sandris Tomson in three. After Kelly dropped his outclassed foe with a left, McCullagh stopped the fight at 1:54 of the round, ruling that Tomson could not continue. In fighting for the first time outside New York state, Kelly is now 4-0-1 since turning pro in July. Tomson is 1-11.
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KING’S HALL
BELFAST, NORTHERN IRELAND
DEC. 8, 2007
MIDDLEWEIGHTS: John Duddy, 159 1/4, Derry, Northern Ireland dec. Howard Eastman, 160, London, England (10)
LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHTS: Aloysius Kelly, 174 1/2, Westmeath, Ireland TKO’d Sandris Tomson, 174, Riga, Latvia (3)
Caine Brodie, 171 3/4, Peterborough, England dec. Andrei Tostihs, 165 3/4, Riga, Latvia (4)
JUNIOR MIDDLES: Ciaran Healy, 152 3/4, Belfast KO’d Lee Murtagh, 153 1/2, Leeds, England (5) (wins vacant Irish title)
Damian Taggart, 149 1/2, Omagh, Northern Ireland dec. Peter Dunn, 158 1/2, Pontrefact, England (4)
Willie Thompson, 152 1/2, Ballyclare, Northern Ireland dec. Duncan Cottier, 153 1/2, London, England (4)
WELTERWEIGHTS: Giammario Grassellini, 1455 1/2, Gubbio, Italy dec. Stephen Haughian, 146 1/2, Lurgan, Northern Ireland (12)
JUNIOR WELTERS: Paul McCloskey, 139, Dungiven, Northern Ireland TKO’d Tontcho Tontchev, 138 1/2, Sliven, Bulgaria (4)
Andrew Murray, 136 1/2, Cavan, Ireland TD overJamie Gorman, 137 1/2, Belfast (4) (wins vacant Irish title)
FEATHERWEIGHTS: Martin Lindsay, 128, Brampton, Ontario dec. Edison Torres, 126, Zulia, Venezuela (8)
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