By Mitch Abramson
Trying to crack the “Duddy Factor”
The promotional company Irish Ropes has done a marvelous job of turning John Duddy into a star in Ireland and New York.
But establishing Duddy as a legitimate contender worthy of a title shot on one of the major networks apparently has not been as easy.
Duddy (25-0, 17 knockouts) was supposed to fight IBF junior middleweight champ Verno Phillips in September, but little interest in the fight by HBO and Showtime scuttled those plans.
“There was an agreement between the two promotional groups, but we did not have an agreement on the fight,” Irish Ropes matchmaker Jim Borzell said. “It was agreed on in principal, but the fight was un-sellable. Basically, nobody wanted to buy the fight.”
Neither Showtime nor HBO showed any interest Borzell said.
While the bout would seem to be an intriguing match-up for fans: an aging but sharp pro in Phillips against a rugged, young fighter in Duddy, for whatever reason the fight didn’t connect with the major networks.
Art Pelullo, Phillips promoter from Banner Promotions was surprised by the snub, especially given the fight’s potential for action and intrigue. It would seem to be an appealing match-up; fans will be deprived of a fun fight.
“There’s a great storyline,” Pelullo said. “There’s the old lion and the young kid who is trying to build his career. It made for a big story. They’re both action fighters, one guy is experienced and the other is trying to make his name. I went over all this, and I was unable to get HBO or Showtime to get an interest any event. I don’t know why they didn’t have any interest. I just don’t know.”
Calls to both Showtime boxing head Ken Hirschman and HBO’s Kerry Davis were not immediately returned, but this is the type of fight I presume insiders (perhaps on the East Coast) would have liked to see, at least to witness whether Duddy is a world class fighter or not.
Borzell wasn’t shocked by the lack of interest and pointed to the cause as being something called the “Duddy Factor.”
John Duddy will never be confused with Floyd Mayweather. His defense is porous and he blew a title shot against Kelly Pavlik when he nearly fell flat against a brawler named Walid Smichet at Madison Square Garden in February. Bob Arum, Pavlik’s promoter, was ringside that night and called Duddy’s actions in the ring against Smichet “dreadful.”
"I thought he won the fight," Arum said shortly after the fight in a phone interview. "But was it dreadful? Yes. I couldn't believe this was the same guy that I had seen before. He went out of his way to get hit. I think he didn't really prepare for this guy. He was looking ahead to the Pavlik fight."
Duddy’s promoter, Eddie McLoughlin was equally as effusive in his denunciation of Duddy that night, calling it the worse performance of his career. Lost in all the criticism was that Duddy gutted out a majority decision win with a late rally.
Needless to say, the effects of his performance still linger to this day. Cuts sustained in the Smichet fight caused Duddy to lose the Pavlik bout. But no one would have blamed Arum if he had killed the fight based on how poor Duddy looked.
“I have to say that John puts on an exciting fight, but I think he’s being overlooked because of one poor fight that he had with Smichet,” Borzell said. “I think he’s been ridden20a little bit too hard because of that fight. John will fight down to the level of his opponent. If Grandma Moses was going to fight him, he’d fight down to her level and he’d make that fight exciting.”
In other words, the powers-that-be don’t see Duddy as a serious contender because of that dismal performance against Smichet. Another school of thought has it that Duddy’s ethnic make-up, good looks and rock star popularity may over-shadow anything he does in the ring, hence the “Duddy Factor” is how Borzell put it. In other words, Duddy is measured by a different set of standards than everyone else. This is probably overstating things a bit, but Borzell didn’t deny that these factors might have contributed to the bout with Phillips falling through.
“Everybody thought he was getting by on his good looks, which is absurd because he puts on exciting fights,” Borzell said. “He’s much more than what he appears. He’s a warrior in the ring.”
So the question for Irish Ropes now becomes how to package Duddy as a serious contend er rather than purely a marketing sensation?
The promotional company was grappling with that very issue this week. The notion of him fighting in Northern Ireland for his next fight seems to be picking up steam, and a firm decision will be announced on Friday, Borzell said.
“The insiders are looking for us to go against nobodies to establish his record so he can go for the title,” Borzell said. “But I firmly believe that he needs to fight against someone with some credibility, and establish himself as a serious contender, though I already see himself as a serious contender as it stands. He needs a statement fight.”
Joe Greene: Still mean and yes, a bit green
It could have been a career-defining fight. It could also have been a serious misstep. We’ll never know because Joe Greene, one of the top prospects in New York, wa s offered the chance to face Sergio Martinez, a rugged, versatile, experienced boxer from Argentina on Oct. 4 on HBO.
The bout was turned down, however. The primary reason given by Leon Margules, Greene’s promoter from Warriors Boxing, was that Greene was still recuperating from a bruising fight against Jose Torres on Aug. 13.
Greene’s trainer and uncle, Andre Rozier said the refusal to take the Martinez bout also had to do with the financial terms. Rozier said that Greene, 22, was offered just $100,000 and only five weeks to prepare for Martinez. For a young boxer such as Greene, still evolving and with half the experience of Martinez (43-1), it didn’t make sense to take the fight at this time. Greene twisted both knees when he slipped on the canvas and sustained swelling around his eyes against Torres and is still on the mend.
“The timing of it just wasn’t right,” Rozier said. “We were offered the fight with Martinez shortly after a very exciting fight with Torres. For a bout of that nature with Martinez, we should be compensated a lot more, and we would have needed more time to prepare.
Then he added, “Just understand that we are not afraid of Sergio Martinez. We’re not afraid of anyone. It just didn’t make sense to take the fight at this time.”
Greene’s father and co-trainer, Joe Greene Sr. echoed those sentiments and went several steps further.
“We’re officially calling out Martinez and John Duddy and all the top guys in the division,” he said of Greene who is now campaigning at junior middleweight. “We respect Duddy, and I love the guy, he’s a class act, but we think that can be a huge fight in New York between Duddy and my son. The opportunity to fight Martinez was given to us at the wrong time. We would have had to turn around and go right back into training camp right away. I don’t think it was fair to be offered that fight just four days after we just fought Torres. The human body needs to heal and once that happens, we’ll be ready for all the big names in the division, guys like Vernon Forrest, whomever.”
Greene’s name has been in high circulation recently. A deal was in place for Greene (20-0, 14 knock outs) to face Kelly Pavlik on Sept. 27 on HBO, Margules said. Nothing was signed, but he and Arum had a verbal agreement. When HBO decided to bump Arum to stage a bout between Shane Mosley and Ricardo Mayorga, Pavlik was elevated to Pay-Per-View status.
“Obviously, Joe Greene is not a Pay-Per-View guy,” Margules said. “And then they did the Hopkins fight on Oct. 18. So the fight [with Greene and Pavlik] fell apart after they took the date from Bob Arum.”
For now, Margules is hoping to have Greene fight in the fall.
“I think Martinez is ordinary, and he’s fully capable of beating Martinez,” Margules said. “Pavlik would have been a difficult fight and maybe a little premature, but you can’t turn down that type of opportunity in this marketplace.”
Greene was somewhat erratic in his win over Torres, at times getting flustered with his opponent’s roughhouse tactics. Greene ultimately settled down, weathered a couple shaky moments in which he absorbed some hard shots, and went on to win a decision.
“I think he showed the heart, courage, and the intangibles that you need to be champ in his last fight,” Margules said. “It also showed how young he is and some of his inexperience. I think he got a little riled up by the guy’s tactics. Like any young fighter, it’s a learning experience for him in each fight.”
Sadam Ali ready to turn pro, put Olympics behind him
If Sadam Ali, the U.S. Olympic boxer from Brooklyn, competes in the 2012 Olympic Games, it will be for his hometown country of Yemen.
“They don’t have the same types of restrictions that the U.S. has,” Ali said. “I love fight ing for the United States, this is where I was born, I love this country, but I don’t want to have to go through what w e all went through in the last year preparing for the Olympics.”
With just one bronze medal and dissension among the coaches and boxers leading up to the Games, it was the worst performance of any U.S. boxing team in the history of the Olympics.
It might also be its most contentious. The main point of debate had to do with the boxers being confined to the Olympic residency program for the year leading up to the Games, and for a young team that still had some growing up to do in and out of the ropes, the result was a lot of quibbling between the boxers and the Olympic training staff. Nearly half the team was threatened to be dismissed from the team, and many of the boxers complained of having to basically train themselves in the run-up to the Games in Beijing. As a result, it couldn’t have come as a surprise that the team’s performance was so dismal.
“We could have been the best team out there,” said Ali, who lost in the first round of the Olympics. “But the=2 0way20the scoring was, there was no way we could do it. It was real stupid. People who don’t know how to box were winning because of the scoring, and people who know what they were doing weren’t rewarded for landing body shots and jabs. But they’ll see how good this team is when we all turn pro.”
Ali, the first Arab-American to represent the U.S. in the Olympics, announced shortly after he returned home from the Olympics to Brooklyn that he will turn pro in 2009.
So there it is: It’s a foregone conclusion that Ali will turn pro and not represent either Yemen or the U.S. in the 2012 Olympics.
Already, Ali is making big plans for his jump to the pros. His father David, a successful real estate developer will manage him.
There are businessmen in the international business hub of Dubai that have expressed interest in promoting Ali, though David thinks it might be better for Sadam to start his career in New York. Another idea being bandied about is for Sadam to promote himself through the company, World Kid Promotions.
“I know he’s going to be a ticket seller in New York or wherever you take him,” David said. “He has the background, and later on if he’s successful, he could be a big international star with 22 Arab countries and all the Muslim countries. So he has a lot of options. He’s only 19-years-old; he’s just a baby, so he has plenty of time to figure out what to do.”
David spoke of an advantage that his son will have over other fighters who turn pro.
“They know he has a fan base and he can sell tickets,” David said. “He has the edge that he can sell tickets right now in the first show. A lot of fighters, you have to build them up to ticket sellers, but Sadam already has that ability to sell tickets.”
There were rumors that Ali had already signed with New York-based promoter Lou DiBella before the Olympics, but Ali and DiBella quashed such a notion. In any event, DiBella’s Broadway Boxing series has been a place for young local fighters to develop and DiBella has expressed interest in working with Sadam.
David has attended many of DiBella’s shows to cheer on other fighters who came through the Starrett City gym system such as Jaidon Codrington, Curtis Stevens and Gary Stark Jr., but he thinks Broadway Boxing might not be a good fit for his son.
“Broadway Boxing would be too small for Sadam,” David said. “I mean, you can add all the fans they have who go to those shows, and then you add Sadam to that card and where would you put them all? Putting him on a Broadway Boxing show? Impossible. If you can count all his cousins, he has at least a 100 cousins, and each cousin is coming with 10 of their friends, and then you have all of Sadam’s friends and fans. They wouldn’t fit.”
Asked if losing in the first round of the Olympics will diminish his popularity as a professional, Sadam shook his head.
“The people who really support me and really know who I am are going to stick with me and not worry about that one loss in the Olympics,” he said. “That’s just one loss. The people who were just there being a regular groupie- they will hate on me and they won’t be my fan. I just want to show everybody that the pro thing is for me and I feel that I’m going to be a better pro, even though I did accomplish something by making the Olympic team.”
Closing Remarks:
…A run-down of the rest of the fighters on Warriors dossier revealed the following: heavyweight Sultan Ibragimov, who suffered the first loss of his career against Wladimir Klitschko in February, is according to Margules, “On temporary vacation, or maybe it’s a permanent vacation. He hasn’t told me when he’s going to fight again or if he wants to fight again.”
…Glen Johnson, who gave WBC light heavyweight champ Chad Dawson all he could handle, may face Shaun George on November 1 at the Hard Rock in Florida, pending approval from Showtime, Margules said. If he doesn’t get that fight, then Johnson will have a “stay busy fight” off TV around that time…After getting stopped by Arthur Abraham in four rounds in June, Edison Miranda will most likely make his return on that November 1 show. “He needs a confidence builder before we throw him back to the wolves,9 D Margules said.
…Former IBF junior welterweight champ Juan Urango, who is now ranked No. 2 in the IBF after winning an eliminator again st Carlos Vilches, is in a bit of a “holding pattern.” Playing God for a moment, Margules envisions a scenario in which the winner of Ricky Hatton and Paulie Malignaggi is stripped of his title for refusing to fight his mandatory (Herman Ngoudjo), and Urango and Ngoudjo end up fighting for the vacant IBF title at some point in time….
…Margules is looking to bring back Sechew Powell following his devastating loss to Deandre Latimore in June that cost Powell a mandatory title shot at IBF junior middle champ Verno Phillips. Margules felt Powell wasn’t in shape for the fight. “I was really disappointed in Sechew,” he said. “I felt Latimore was a limited guy, the right opponent, and I thought Sechew was in no shape for the fight. He was fighting off the ropes, and looked like he had no gas in the tank.”
…Fresh off his loss to Ishe Smith on Showtime Aug. 1, Pawel “Raging Bull” Wolak (21-1, 14 KO s) is changing coaches and will be trained exclusively by Don Saxby, who takes over for Patrick Ford. Wolak will headline “Havoc at the Hilton,” a Ring Promotions card on Sept. 26 at the Huntington Hilton Hotel in Long Island, N.Y. Wolak, originally from Poland will face Chad Greenleaf (10-10-1, 4 KOs) in the eight-round main event.
…A nice moment at the press conference in Manhattan the other day for Vitali Klitschko and S amuel Peter. Standing in the back of the room of Gallagher's Steak House was a Polish heavyweight who lives in Brooklyn named Adam Kownacki, who has made a name for himself as a crowd-pleasing amateur and three-time finalist of the New York Golden Gloves. Klitschko’s management team was contacted by Brian Adams, director of the Golden Gloves, regarding one day promoting the 6-3, 245-pound Kownacki. As he was leaving the restaurant, Klitscho paused to meet Kownacki in one of those unscripted moments that are fun to watch. Kownacki won the Gloves two years ago and anticipates turning pro next year.
“How old are you?” the Ukrainian giant asked.
“Only 19,” Adam said, looking up at Vitali.
Klitschko smiled and shook his head. “You’re a baby. Oh my god, you have so much time to grow.”
The two posed for pictures outside the restaurant and Klitschko hopped into the passenger seat of a Mercedes and zoomed off.
“That’s the champ right there,” Adam said. “It’s motivation for me to meet him. That’s where I want to get one day . I want to achieve what he’s doing.”
Then he smiled, and headed to Gleason’s Gym in Brooklyn with his trainer, James (Country) Thornwell, two heavyweights going in separate but similar directions.
Any advice or comments can be directed to mitchaaaa@aol.com .
