AMERICA AT LARGEThe unbeaten Derryman has more than one reason to tighten up his defences, writes George Kimball
HAD ALL gone according to plan back in February, John Duddy would at this moment have been preparing to throw down with Kelly Pavlik for the middleweight championship of the world at Madison Square Garden two weeks hence.
Instead, the undefeated Derry boxer is in Miami, where this week he engaged in his first sparring session in over three months as he prepared for a low-profile return to the ring against the journeyman Charlie Howe at Boston's Park Plaza Castle on June 28th.
Promoter Bob Arum had made preparations to formally announce a Pavlik-Duddy fight the following morning, but even as he nervously anticipated the verdict of the judges after his February 23rd 10-rounder against the Tunisian Walid Smichet, Duddy knew he wasn't going to be fighting Pavlik in June.
Three deep cuts he incurred in the fight had seen to that, and although John was awarded (generously, thought some) a majority decision, Arum seemed secretly relieved the damage he sustained against Smichet had forced the change in plans.
"Duddy," sighed Arum, "looked dreadful." So while the Irishman went off to lick his wounds, Pavlik's June 7th title defence was shifted to Atlantic City, where he will face the unheralded Welshman Gary Lockett, whose $500,000 purse represents half what Duddy was to have earned.
"I don't want this to sound disrespectful to Duddy, but I think he blew it with that last fight," said Lockett. "I'm never one to wish bad fortune on any fighter, but his loss was my gain."
Duddy's management team at Irish Ropes, while obviously disappointed in missing out on the million-dollar title shot, were even more alarmed by the ease with which their boxer had been repeatedly tagged by a mediocre opponent. Within days manager Eddie McLoughlin had initiated a search for a new trainer, one that culminated with the selection of Patrick Burns, the 1996 US OIympic coach who had trained, among others, Hector Camacho, Glen Johnson, and Pavlik's predecessor as middleweight champion, Jermain Taylor.
Burns will be Duddy's third trainer in his last six fights.
"I'd seen him fight a bit, although I hadn't closely followed his career," said Burns. "I thought he was a very tough kid with a lot of upside. He's had some good trainers (Don Turner and Harry Keitt) in the past, but I'm just hoping to add a few things that will make him a better fighter."
"I knew before I even came down here that Patrick was known for producing well-conditioned fighters," said Duddy from Miami two nights ago. "I figured I'd better be in some kind of decent shape before I even got here. They seemed to be pleased that I was.
"This is the first time in my career that I've ever been involved in all-around workouts. I work out three times a day, five days a week. I get up at 6am to do roadwork, and then report to the gym at 11:30 for boxing. And at 4:30 I do weight training, which is something I've never done before. With Harry I used to hit tyres with a sledgehammer, but this is the first time I've ever worked with actual weights. Joseph Burns, Patrick's brother, is my strength and conditioning coach, and he supervises all of that.
"It's not going to turn me into the Incredible Hulk . . . this is mostly just light reps, for conditioning. The hope is that it will make me stronger, and perhaps improve my stamina in the later rounds. It's probably harder work than any training camp I've ever been involved in, but I'm actually enjoying it - and hopefully this will all make me a better fighter."
A friend from Belfast, Mark Calhoun, accompanied Duddy to Miami.
"Mark is here as my workout partner, but also to keep me company," said Duddy. "He pushes me in the gym, and then on Saturdays - my day off - we might go to the beach and then to a movie. Instead of going to a pub for a pint, my indulgence is now a box of popcorn at the cinema."
Even as he mowed down a succession of middleweights earlier in his career (he knocked out 13 of his first 14 opponents, eight in the first round) there were questions about Duddy. He could punch, but given his apparent disdain for defence, he wasn't difficult to hit. What was going to happen when he got in with a big puncher?
He answered those questions, demonstrating he could suck it up and perform even when things weren't going his way, but in the meantime there has been an even more alarming development in his susceptibility to cuts (his face was such a mess in the Smichet fight it looked as if Walid had used an axe on his left eyelid; had he been another fighter in another venue, the referee might have stopped it.)
This has taken a toll not just in lost financial opportunities, but in time spent recuperating. At a stage of his career where he should probably he fighting five or six times a year, Duddy spent six months recovering from the damage incurred in his 2006 fight against Yory Boy Campas, and it will have been more than four months since his last outing by the time he fights Howe in Boston.
This, obviously, is a condition no trainer can hope to improve, but, says Duddy, "The trainer's not there to keep me from getting cut. Perhaps if I can quit being so stubborn and stop brawling when I should be boxing I won't expose myself to cuts as much . . ."
"Cuts are going to happen in this business," said Burns. "You could be the best defensive fighter in the world and still wind up on the wrong side of a clash of heads. The only solution I know of is to have a good cut man."
Duddy wants at all costs to avoid facial damage in his next fight, and this time it has nothing to do with Kelly Pavlik.
"I'm flying straight home after the Boston fight," he said. "My father (Mickey) is getting married (to Margaret McLaughlin) on July 4th. I'm supposed to be the best man, and I don't want to mess up the wedding pictures."
