February 17, 2011
By Staff Reporter
But before the charismatic Derryman and his girlfriend take in the surf and sun in South Florida, there’s the little matter of Duddy’s pay-per-view debut against another undefeated foe this Thursday night.
“I’m ready to explode,” Ireland’s best middleweight prospect since Steve Collins, proclaimed ahead of his contest with the Dominican Republic’s Emiliano Cayetano in Hollywood. “I’m feeling good and looking forward to it.”
Their scheduled eight-round scrap at 7:30 p.m. will be the first televised bout on the $19.95 “Global Warfare” card from the Seminole Hard Rock Live Arena. Other fights on the broadcast include heavyweights Sam Peter vs. Robert Hawkins in the main event and Lance “Mount” Whitaker against the man he brawled with at a press conference last month, Russian Sultan Ibragimov.
Duddy vs. Cayetano is the ultimate challenge match as it pits two unbeaten prospects in an early crunch fight. The Irishman is 13-0 with 12 wins via the short route, while Cayetano boasts of a 12-0 ledger with seven whacks.
“Someone’s ‘0’ has got to go,” says Duddy handler Eddie McLoughlin who predicts a kayo by his charge within four rounds.
“He’s durable but once John starts catching him and breaking him down, he’ll end it in the first half of the right,” said McLoughlin after studying a tape of the 33 year-old.
From the same tape, Duddy has gleaned that Cayetano is an elusive customer who likes to use the ring a lot.
“I’ll have to walk him down and throw a lot of combinations,” he concluded.
Said trainer Harry Keitt of the explosive punching Duddy’s conditioning for the bout: “John’s in superb condition. He’s ready, focused and (raring) to do his thing. It’s going to be an exciting fight.”
Among the fighters the 26 year-old Duddy sparred with in preparation for Cayetano was Henry Coyle, an amateur junior middleweight out of County Mayo.
This will be Duddy’s seventh and last fight of 2005. He began the year with a one round romp over Chuck Orso in White Plains, New York, in February, knocked off Lenord Pierre, decisioned Patrick Thompson and then dispatched Patrick Coleman, Joseph Brady and Bryon Mackie in that order.
Duddy will deservedly spend a few days on vacation in South Florida with his girlfriend after the Cayetano fight.
GREAT IRISH TREK
According to McLoughlin, up to 150 Irish Duddy fans from New York will be heading south Thursday morning to watch their hero in action at the Seminole Hard Rock Live Arena.
“A lot of Irish in Florida have also been making calls,” he added.
For ticket information, call (305) 358-5885, (954) 523-3309 or (561) 966-3309.
DUDDY PROPS
Wayne McCullough and HBO boxing analyst Larry Merchant are just two fight luminaries currently riding the Duddy bandwagon.
The “Pocket Rocket,” who won the WBC bantamweight title ten years ago, likes what he sees in the Derry Destroyer.
“I think he could be the next Wayne McCullough and become a world champion,” McCullough says. “John made the right move coming over here (the U.S.).”
Merchant, who saw the young middleweight fight in New York, said: “Duddy has a crowd-pleasing style that could explode into something big if it turns out he can compete on the highest level,” Merchant said.
BRILLIANT DUNNE
Bernard Dunne ended a year during which he picked up a lightly regarded world championship with a sixth round KO of Romanian journeyman Marian Leondraliu in Leipzig, Germany, last Saturday.
The non-title bout was on the undercard of the Kingsley Ikeke-Arthur Abraham IBF middleweight championship scrap won by the latter, who could appear on John Duddy’s radar in the near future, in the fifth round.
Dunne, an undefeated featherweight who dropped down to super bantamweight to claim the IBC belt with a second round stoppage of Sean Hughes in Dublin last October, upped his ledger to 18-0 (11 KOs). Leondraliu fell to 13-15.