Duddy-Bonsante weigh in report
Main event performers John Duddy and Anthony Bonsante made the weight with ease. So did Giovanni Lorenzo and Robert Kamya, and, for that matter, so did Andy Lee. But when it came time for Lee's opponent, Carl (The Squirrel) Daniels to mount the scale at the Madison Square Garden Theatre, the former WBA 154-pound champion turned out to be a light heavyweight, checking in at 170 pounds.
The Squirrel must have put away too many acorns over the winter back home in St. Louis. Or perhaps the fact that he had only accepted the role as Lee’s opponent 48 hours earlier had something to do with it.
At any rate, since New York State Athletic Commission rules stipulate that the disparity should be no greater than seven pounds between non-heavyweight opponents, the fight, scheduled to open the televised portion of Friday night’s “Erin Go Brawl” card, appeared to be in some peril.
Lee, the Emanuel Steward-trained Limerick middleweight who represented Ireland in the 2004 Olympics, had weighed in at 159.
The thorny problem was resolved by a Solomonic decision to turn them both into super-middleweights.
Daniels, wrapping a plastic garbage bag around his midsection and underneath his sweatshirt, spent the next hour jogging through the Garden corridors.
Lee did his part by crossing 8th Avenue and planting himself in a booth at the Stage Door Deli, where he wolfed down an early St. Patrick’s Day repast consisting of a large bowl of pasta, washed down with a milkshake.
When they returned to the scale an hour later, Lee weighed 164, Daniels 168, and the fight was back on.
Duddy (18-0) was a quarter-pound under the middleweight limit at 159 for his fight with Bonsante (29-8-3), who was just half a pound lighter. Both Lorenzo (22-0) and Kamya (15-6) scaled in at 160.
Bronx lightweight Maureen Shea (9-0), who weighed 134, will be giving away seven pounds to her Mexican opponent, Eva Lidia Silva (4-6).
In addition to Derry native Duddy and Lee (who is 7-0; Daniels is 40-10-1), three other Irish-born fighters will box on Irish Ropes’ sold-out card Friday night. Heavyweight James Clancy (9-0) of Ennis, County Clare weighed 234 to 3-4-1 opponent Rodney Ray’s 204 æ, while Clancy’s cruiserweight brother Mark (6-0-1) was 196, two pounds more than New Yorker Andrew Hutchinson (2-8-2).
Henry Coyle, a former Irish National Amatuer welterweight champion from Geesala, County Mayo, will fight as a junior middle in his pro debut. Coyle weighed 152 for his bout against another first-timer, New Jerseyite Jason Collazo (156).
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