By Mark Vester
After recently winning a tough ten-round decision over Howard Eastman at King's Hall in Belfast, undefeated middleweight John Duddy (23-0, 17KOs) is now taking a step back in class by facing Matt "The Predator" Vanda (37-5, 21KOs) on Feb. 2 in New York's Madison Square Garden. According to the Belfast Telegraph , the bout takes place on the undercard to Oleg Maskaev's defense of the WBC heavyweight title against Samuel Peter.
Eastman is Duddy's best win to date. Irish Ropes, Duddy's promoter, stepped up his competition well in the last year, but they could have found a 100 stiffs better than a Matt Vanda.
Not only is Vanda coming off a loss, he's 4-4 in his last eight bouts. He's done nothing to deserve a bout with Duddy. I know some may say, ‘what did a guy like Jesse Feliciano do to deserve a bout with IBF champion Kermit Cintron.’ Feliciano was coming off a great TKO win over Delvin Rodriguez, a win over Vince Phillips and battled to a draw with Alfonso Gomez, all in a 12-month span before taking the Cintron title bout. Vanda's best weight was 154-pounds and he was far from a factor at 154.
I know the bout is a "showcase," which may or may not land on the televised portion of Showtime's telecast for Maskaev-Peter. I don't think Vanda, who fights ugly, is the right guy to use for the purpose of looking good.
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