TalkingBoxing Articles
So Far - Duddy Ain’t No Dud
MON July 25, BUSTER PARIS - It had to be said – c’mon it was inevitable. You know you’d say the same thing – “Duddy ain’t no Dud” or “Duddy is a Dud” if he got knocked out in the first round.
I remember hearing a story about a fighter named Arnold Raymond Cream who upon becoming a boxer went that extra step and changed his name so that writers wouldn’t write “Cream got Creamed” if he lost a fight.
On June 3, 2005 TalkingBoxing’s own Brian Skjold told all of us:
“…if you haven’t had a chance to watch John Duddy fight, I recommend you start watching now...” [interview here]
And in describing John Duddy’s growth in the sport:
“…is looking more and more impressive with each outing…”
He was absolutely right.
On Friday – July 22nd 2005 I had the good fortune of catching “Ireland’s” John Duddy on ESPN’s Friday Night Fights.
He fought and won an 8 rounder via an 8th round TKO against a very game and tough Patrick Coleman and I’m officially announcing right now that for the remainder of 2005 I’ll be jumping on the John Duddy bandwagon.
The July 22nd bout was well fought and interesting. What made it specifically appealing was viewing it with the perspective of watching a hot young prospect early on shaping his craft and building a career.
Duddy hits hard, there’s simply no question about it. He has immense power and an amazing left hook that connects so strongly it must have been heard all the way back to the cheap seats in Chicago’s All State Arena.
John has over 100 amateur bouts under his belt, which is worthy of note and definitely has helped to make him as good as he is now, but this is the pros and he’s relatively new with only 11 fights and there’s work to be done to make him into a more complete fighter.
One criticism is that he stood up straight too much. He needs to crouch a little more.
ESPN guest commentator Pernell “Sweet Pea” Whitaker noted another area needing improvement – the jab. Duddy needs to add the jab to his repertoire, I don’t even recall seeing him throw one jab all night. As he moves up in class of competition he’s definitely going to need to employ a jab.
John Duddy so far is not a dud. Up to now it looks like he can take and dish out punishment. He has 11 wins, 10 of them achieved by knockout and he has the automatic bestowed charm and charisma of being from Ireland.
This kid has a great future in front of him and I wish him the best of luck especially with the added pressure of the name “Duddy” – and so far Duddy ain’t no dud.
Oh…by the way Arnold Raymond Cream - was “Jersey” Joe Walcott.
Buster Paris can be reached at: bparis@talkingboxing.com - and always enjoys receiving your thoughts, comments and questions.
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