With his upcoming fight against the experienced Matt Vanda on the way, where do people see Duddy in the middle weight division. Does he stand the best chance of winning a strap of all the up and coming Irish boxers Lee, Mc Closkey, Dunne, Macklin etc
I've gone to see Mccloskey on a few occasions and i think he's a good prospect as well. Very awkward to hit and has a huge range of punches
Andy Lee can still be great. He has plenty of time to refine his skills. He has it all, he just fought a stupid fight against vera
I haven't really seen him post Smitchet, though I am one of the few that seemed impressed that he dug down to turn that fight around. I think Arum still sees something in him though. Hope it isn't just dollar signs.
I think it probably is the dollar signs - Arum said himself that a Duddy/Pavlik is the biggest fight at middleweight , not necessarily the best(obviously Pavlik/AA).This means one thing only - Duddy/Pavlik is the most money for Arum.
I agree with the McCloskey backers. I don't think he'll be a star but a very solid contender indeed. As per Duddy. Duddy won't have an amazingly successful boxing career (I think he'll finish with one of those 40-6 sort of records once the competition steps up) but he will make a lot of money. He's properly managed.
As mentioned above i agree that Duddy could make progress as light middle, he would be a bigger puncher for me at that weight. As for Andy Lee i think the jury is still out to a certain degree, i was surprised by his capitulation versus Vera, in similar circumstances Duddy changed his fight plan agsinst Smichet.
The loss to Vera cost Andy more than some people realize. Ironically, it may have also saved his career. Top Rank was set to sign Lee to a 4 fight deal. Of the 4 fights he was to be guaranteed 2 appearances on Pavlik undercards, and 1 shot at the champ. In spite of the hype that surrounded young Andy at the time, I think it is now obvious that if he would have climbed in the ring with Kelly Pavlik fall/winter of '08, as Steward wanted, he would have taken a savage, possibly career ending, beating. So the loss cost him, but it probably also saved him.