John Duddy

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This article is about John Duddy, the Irish boxer. For the Scottish murderer, see Massacre of Braybrook Street. For the man shot dead on Bloody Sunday in Derry, see Bloody Sunday (1972).

Statistics
John Duddy

Real name	John Francis Duddy
Nickname(s)	Ireland's John Duddy The Derry Destroyer
Rated at	Middleweight
Nationality	Irish
Birth date	June 19, 1979(1979-06-19)
Birth place	Derry, Northern Ireland
Stance	Orthodox
Boxing record
Total fights	24
Wins	24
Wins by KO	17
Losses	0
Draws	0
No contests	0

John Francis Duddy (born June 19, 1979, Derry, Northern Ireland) is a middleweight boxer. Duddy fights under the moniker of Ireland's John Duddy or The Derry Destroyer.

John Duddy has won all of his 24 professional bouts, 17 of those wins were by knockout with 9 of those KO's coming in the first round. He has been featured in undercard and headlining bouts on ESPN and Top Rank Pay-Per-View, among other television channels.

Duddy is the IBA World middleweight title and a former WBC Continental Americas middleweight title holder until he vacated that belt.^[1]

1 Amateur career
2 Professional career
3 Other information
4 Ratings
5 Professional Record
6 Notes and references
7 External links

[edit] Amateur career

As an amateur Duddy fought 130 times, winning 100 of his bouts. Duddy won his first Irish national title at the age of 15 as a light middleweight in the Junior Division, later obtaining the Irish title at both Intermediate and Senior Levels. He also represented Ireland at European level and during Olympic qualifiers.^[2]^[3]^[4]^[5]^[6]^[7]^[8]^[8]

[edit] Professional career

[edit] Debut

Duddy's first professional fight was on September 19, 2003, against Tarek Rashed in The Bronx. He won via first round knockout. On November 22, he stopped Jesse Gomez at the Crowne Plaza hotel. His next bout was also at the Crowne Plaza, where he beat Leo Laudat on December 21 but suffered his first knockdown.^[1]

[edit] Early professional fights

Duddy began 2004 by stepping up his opponent quality a notch, when he met Ken Hock on January 9 at Uncasville, Connecticut. Hock had ten victories against four losses and one draw (tie) coming into his bout with Duddy. Hock became the first boxer to go more than one round against Duddy, but still lost by knockout to the Irish prospect in the fourth round.

Duddy then experienced his career's longest lay-off, waiting over nine months before his next bout. When he returned, he once again won by first round knockout, defeating Victor Paz on October 30 at Middletown, New York. Duddy quickly returned to action after that fight, beating William Johnson on November 18 in Manhattan.^[1]

Duddy's final fight of 2004 came on December 12 at Brighton Beach, Brooklyn against the then undefeated Glen Dunnings. Dunnings became only the second boxer to go more than one round against Duddy, when he was knocked out in the fifth round.

Duddy's first fight of 2005 came on February 4, when he beat Chuck Orso in White Plains.

[edit] St. Patrick's Day events

On 18 March, Duddy fought the undefeated prospect Leonard Pierre as part of an Irish themed "day after Saint Patrick's Day card". This undercard was televised in the United States on ESPN, with Duddy and Pierre fighting the semi-main event of the card, which was headlined by heavyweight Kevin McBride, who later defeated Mike Tyson.

Both the live crowd and the television announcers expected an early knockout in this fight, given that Pierre also had six first round knockout wins. Duddy proceeded to drop Pierre twice before experienced referee Frank Cappuccino stopped the fight, giving Duddy his seventh first round knockout, and his ninth consecutive knockout victory. The famous former boxer Micky Ward, who is Irish-American and who provided commentary from the ESPN studio for that fight, expressed pleasure with Duddy's performance that night.

On 11 June 2005 Duddy boxed against Patrick Thompson in Madison Square Garden. Thompson became the third boxer to last the first round, and both fighters boxed to a judge's decision. The score on all three cards was 80-72 in favor of Duddy, who extended his win streak to ten, while his knockout streak ended at nine.^[1]

Since then Duddy has fought eight times, knocking out six of the opponents, including first round knock outs of both Joseph Brady (September 17, 2005) and Shelby Pudwill (March 16, 2006). On the undercard of the June 10, 2006 Miguel Cotto-Paul Malignaggi Top Rank Pay-Per-View fight, Duddy took on the experienced fighter Alfredo Cuevas, who in 2004 went the 12 round distance with current middleweight champion Jermain Taylor. It was Duddy's eighth fight in less than a year and his third at Madison Square Garden, but he showed no signs of fatigue, fighting Cuevas for 7 rounds before Cuevas retired on his stool with a broken nose and several deep cuts.

Former world heavyweight champion, well known personality, and respected boxing analyst George Foreman provided commentary for the fight, remarking after the fight that Duddy's sharp left jab, "could take him to the top, with a jab like that a world middleweight championship might be on the horizon". Duddy's next fight came against Yori Boy Campas, again at Madison Square Garden. Against an opponent with ten times more professional experience, Duddy went the distance, winning in a unanimous decision after 12 rounds.

On 16 March 2007, he beat Anthony Bonsante at Madison Square Garden. Duddy won with a unanimous 90-81, 89-82 and 88-83 decision when the fight was stopped after the ninth round by referee Steve Smoger, due to heavy bleeding from Bonsante's forehead caused by an earlier accidental headbutt.

[edit] Return to Ireland

On 14 July 2007 Duddy fought the first of his two scheduled fights in what has been billed as his "Homecoming" to Ireland. In his first at the National Stadium in Dublin, his opponent was Alessio Furlan. Duddy was ruled the winner by TKO with only 10 seconds to go in the 10th and final round. John then went on to defeat Prince Arron in 2 rounds on October 20th in the National Stadium, Dublin. Duddy fought Howard Eastman at the King's Hall in Belfast, Ireland on 8 December. The fight was expected to be his toughest to date. In front of 5,500 supporters, Duddy recorded a ten round 96-94 points victory. The fight was close and exciting with the crowd encouraging Duddy's promotional team to consider a return to the Belfast venue in the near future. However, the Derryman will first return to the ring in New York on February 2.^[9]^[10]^[11]

[edit] Other information

[edit] Popularity

Duddy is a popular fighter and in his short career so far has proven to be able to sell out large venues. Duddy's management, Irish Ropes, turned down a $75,000 contract to fight Cuevas for $10,000 and a 50% share of tickets Duddy sold himself. Duddy's large fan base, made up of both the large Irish immigrant community in New York and fans of his aggressive style, turned out in large numbers for the Cuevas fight.

[edit] Possible Jim Rock fight in Dublin

Duddy has displayed interest in fighting Dubliner and current Irish middleweight champ "The Pink Panther" Jim Rock. Duddy's management attended Rock's June 3, 2006 fight against Kevin Phelan in Dublin, a seventh round TKO victory for Rock. The fight was initially scheduled for September 29 at Madison Square Garden, but has since been postponed, possibly for a 2007 bout in Dublin.

[edit] Irish community in New York

Also of note is Duddy's commitment to the Irish community in New York City as he has become involved with the Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform. Duddy has attended many of the group's meetings and met with Arizona Senator John McCain at a group rally. Senator McCain, a former Navy boxer himself, took great interest in Duddy and wished him well in his future bouts. Duddy entered the ring in his March 16, 2006 fight wearing an ILIR t-shirt, to the crowd's great pleasure.

[edit] Bloody Sunday in Derry

John Francis Duddy's uncle, John Francis "Jackie" Duddy (after whom the boxer is named), was killed at the age of 17 on Bloody Sunday, January 30, 1972 in Derry, Northern Ireland. He was shot in the chest in the car park of Rossville flats. Four witnesses stated Duddy was unarmed and running away from the British paratroopers when he was killed. Three of them saw a soldier take deliberate aim at the youth as he ran.

[edit] Issues with Boxrec.com

Following a decision by the Boxrec.com team to change Duddy's nationality to United Kingdom on their boxing record database, a discussion thread.^[12] was created objecting to Boxrec's refusal to accept John's nationality as Irish.^[1]^[13]

Duddy holds an Irish passport and Irish Nationality, in accordance with the laws of the Republic of Ireland. Boxrec's decision to not live up to Duddy's legal claim to an Irish Nationality caused controversy. The Boxrec Team refused to debate the topic and removed various threads on the subject. A petition has been created objecting to Boxrec's refusal to amend John Duddy's record.^[13]