By Mark Vester
According to Emanuel Steward, trainer and manager of Andy Lee, the winner of his boxer's upcoming fight with John Duddy will fall in line for a title fight. The deal is not yet done, but Steward says there is an 80% chance that Lee and Duddy will fight each other on the undercard to Sergio Martinez’s defense of the WBC 160-pound title against Sergei Dzinziruk on March 12.
Steward expects the winner to receive an offer to face Martinez for the WBC title.
“I am 80 percent certain Andy and John will meet on March 12. Andy was meant to challenge Martinez for the world title but Martinez was forced to take on the mandatory challenger,” Steward explained to Irish-Boxing.com.
“Now Andy will fight Duddy and it looks like the winner will then get to fight Martinez, who is the biggest name in the middleweight division, or Dzinziruk depending who wins their fight. Andy Lee is the most logical challenger for a middleweight World title. John Duddy is also a big name in America but he is not as respected as he once was.
Steward is confident about his boxer's chances. He thinks Duddy is on the way down and Lee is on the way up. If Lee beats Duddy and then Martinez, Steward would like to see Lee take on Matthew Macklin.
“Duddy has not put in a performance of note for over three years. Andy will beat John and will then go on to defeat Martinez. Ireland will have another world champion by the end of the year and that will be Andy Lee. Andy will be middleweight champion of the world. When we achieve that we will then look at the possibility of facing Mathew Macklin. That would be another big bout for Ireland and Irish boxing.”
