Boxing/ News round-up:Jermain Taylor, John Duddy, and Andy Lee all posted victories over the weekend, and all three still-undefeated middleweights found themselves apologising afterward.
Ironically, the results may have moved a possible title fight between Taylor and Duddy to the fast track.
On Saturday, a night after Derryman Duddy (20-0) had won every round in a rout of his overmatched opponent Dupre Strickland in New York, world champion Taylor (27-0-1) retained his title with a split decision over the elusive Cory Spinks at the FedEx Forum in Memphis, Tennessee.
A night earlier in Memphis, Limerick's Lee had floored an unskilled Oklahoman named Clinton Bonds three times in two minutes to keep his professional record unblemished at 9-0.
That Taylor and Duddy were extended the distance can be ascribed to the opposition's unwillingness to engage. Taylor spent the night chasing Spinks in an exercise so mind-numbing it apparently caused one ringside judge to fall asleep. Although Spinks landed just 85 punches - only seven a round, and none particularly lethal - Dick Flaherty scored the bout 117-111 for the challenger. Fortunately, Flaherty was outvoted by his colleagues Gale Van Hoy (117-111) and Mike Pernich (115-113), allowing Taylor to retain his WBC and WBO titles.
"If you want to be a champion, fight me, don't run from me," groused Taylor later, complaining Spinks "ran the whole fight".
Although he didn't lose a round on any of the scorecards, Duddy experienced similar frustration at the Beacon Theatre on Manhattan's Upper West Side Friday night. It looked like he might make quick work of Strickland when he decked the Louisianan in the opening round, but his opponent recovered to extend him the 10-round distance, and by the end of the evening Duddy was sporting a pair of small cuts that needed stitchery.
"It's hard fighting a guy who doesn't want to fight," said Duddy afterward. "(Strickland) kept going backwards, and I kept trying to cut off the ring."
Duddy pronounced his win "another learning lesson" but Lee appeared to consider his one-round conquest of the all-but-useless Bonds a waste of time.
"I'd have gotten more out of a sparring session in the gym," said Lee after headlining his first American main event at the New Daisy Theatre on Beale Street.
Lee had hoped to outbox Bonds, but from the moment the opponent came charging out of the corner, throwing wild lefts and rights, it was apparent that would not be an option.
"It was almost a joke," said Lee. "Here I've been sparring with the best boxers in the world (Taylor and IBF welterweight champion Kermit Cintron), but it didn't prepare me for that. The guy was all over the place, throwing hooks from his ankles, roundhouse rights. I could hear (trainer) Emanuel Steward yelling at me to be careful . . . Sometimes a guy like that can be more dangerous than an opponent who actually knows how to box."
After Lee backed away to a prudent distance, Bonds stumbled right into the first knockdown. Then, after Lee softened him up with a succession of hard right hooks to the body, he decked him twice more, leading referee Alan Lovell to invoke the mercy rule at 2:04 of the round.
"A fight like that makes it look like I'm trying to pad my record," said an apologetic Lee, whose next bout, presumably against more testing opposition, will be July 7th, on the undercard of IBF heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko's defence against Lamon Brewster at the Koln Arena, Germany.
Duddy is on the books to box in Dublin that same night, and while the cuts he took from the Strickland fight are unlikely to prevent that, other factors might.
Although Taylor had appeared headed for an autumn mega-fight against the super-middleweight champion Joe Calzaghe, the two camps are so far apart in negotiations that Calzaghe and promoter Frank Warren cancelled a scheduled appearance in Memphis.
If the parties were that far apart before Taylor-Spinks, they are probably further so now. Saturday night was the third straight time Taylor has struggled against a lefthander, and he may be less eager than ever to fight his fourth southpaw in a row.
American Kelly Pavlik, who won a WBC eliminator by stopping Colombian Edison Miranda on the Taylor-Spinks undercard, looms the likely next challenger. On the other hand, promoter Lou DiBella, impressed by Duddy's drawing power with New York's Irish community, would reportedly offer Duddy in excess of a million dollars for a September title fight. Duddy's manager, Eddie McLoughlin, was at ringside in Memphis as DiBella's guest.
DiBella had breakfast with Pavlik's promoter Bob Arum before leaving Memphis and plans to meet McLoughlin later this week.
Although in most estimates Duddy probably isn't ready for Taylor yet, he would surely have a puncher's chance against the champion, who has appeared increasingly vulnerable of late.
