February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
Duddy is back in the gym after a bout of flu kayoed his Madison Square Garden debut on December 13.
The hard punching Derry junior middleweight with a growing following was supposed to square off with Cuban defector Oriol Martinez on the undercard of heavyweight Vitali Klitschko’s two-round blowout of Kirk Johnson at the fabled arena when he fell sick.
Martinez was later penciled in for Jan. 9, on what will be an ESPN2 “Fright Night Fights” show from Foxwoods in Connecticut, but he was stopped in two rounds by Sergio “The Latin Snake” Mora in Arizona last weekend meaning that Duddy will get another opponent.
Duddy said he wasn’t bothered by any of these developments and is just keen to regain top form again after being weakened by the flu.
“I can feel my strength coming back again,” he said from his Maspeth, Queens, home last Sunday.
“I saw the Garden show on TV and wasn’t depressed. Things happen for a reason,” he offered, philosophically.
On spending Christmas and New Year’s in the gym and watching his weight while the rest of the world celebrates, Duddy said he was no stranger to such Yuletide deprivation.
“In Ireland the (amateur) championships used to be in January, so I’m used to working over Christmas,” the former All-Irish titlist shrugged.
Duddy is coming off a wild, 63-second stoppage of Lenny Laudat in Manhattan last month that improved his record to 3-0 (3 KOs).
CLONES COLOSSUS
Big Kevin McBride made short work of journeyman heavyweight Marcus Rhode in Boston last week, scoring a third round TKO in a non-title match at the Roxy.
Dubbed the “The Clones Colossus,” 6-foot-6 inch, 255-pound McBride pummeled Rhode, who’s known as the “Big Tuna” at will until the latter’s corner threw in the towel midway through the round.
McBride had floored Rhode earlier in the third stanza.
It was McBride’s 26th win by stoppage, and one that improved his record against mostly nondescript opposition to 31-4-1 (win, loss, draw). Rhode’s record fell to 29-22-1.