Pavlik’s June opponent is still undetermined

Irishman John Duddy was
unflattering in a victory
Saturday night.

VINDICATOR STAFF/WIRE REPORTS

NEW YORK — Battered and bloodied, Irishman John Duddy used a late flurry to earn a 10-round majority decision over Walid Smichet Saturday night on the undercard of Wladimir Klitschko’s heavyweight unification fight against Sultan Ibragimov.

The rumor all week had been that promoter Bob Arum was eager to put unbeaten middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik into the ring against Duddy for a June fight that would draw a huge crowd. A deal with Duddy’s promoter, Irish Ropes, seemed imminent before the night began.

Then the unbeaten Duddy put in perhaps the most unflattering performance of his career.

Frank Lombardi scored it a 95-95 draw, while the other two judges had it 98-92 for Duddy.

“I made it difficult on myself. I wasn’t letting my punches go the way I wanted to,” said Duddy, the left side of his face looking like a New York strip steak. “I wasn’t letting my hands work for me. I trained a lot better than my performance.”

Arum said afterward the cuts to Duddy’s face likely put off a matchup with Pavlik, at least for now.

“It’s silly to force the fight,” said Arum, who still wants Pavlik to fight in June. “You don’t know if [Duddy] is going to fight or not fight. ... But Kelly’s going to fight three times this year so we’ll do it down the road.”

Pavlik said Sunday he’s preparing for a fight June 7 at Madison Square Garden; who the opponent will be is — for now — insignificant.

“Whoever they put in the ring I’ll fight,” said the champion, who planned to attend the Duddy fight Saturday night but was unable because of delayed and canceled flights. His co-manager, Cameron Dunkin, was ringside at the fight with Arum, according to espn.com.

The big knock on Duddy is that he’s an unrefined brawler, even after working with well-known trainer Don Turner. It certainly showed early on, when the Tunisian fighter (17-4-3) routinely landed hooks over top of the Duddy’s defense and a couple times seemed on the verge of a knockout.

“Look at my face, look at his, and you tell me who won,” Smichet said. “I thought it was close, but I thought I had the edge. I hit him with better punches.”

The Irishman (24-0) appeared to be the fresher fighter in the later rounds, though, finally unfurling his jab through Smichet’s defense. Blood began to trickle from Smichet’s nose as Duddy took the final three rounds on all three scorecards.

“I’m happy, but I’m disappointed in the performance,” said Duddy, refusing to discuss a potential matchup with Pavlik. “You’re always happy with the win, but I’m not happy with the way I did it.”

According to a report on espn.com, Arum met with Duddy’s representatives, Eddie McLoughlin and Jim Borzell, Friday afternoon but the meeting was not fruitful. They were far apart on money.

“We had our meeting and it didn’t go anywhere,” Arum told espn.com. They’re nice people but they have crazy notions. Maybe we can still get together. We’ll talk later. It’s not like they’re bad people. We just have a total disagreement. Maybe we’ll bridge the gap. We’ll see.”

Arum told espn.com that as a Plan B he is talking to Main Events promoter Kathy Duva about matching Pavlik with New York-based Dominican Giovanni Lorenzo (26-0, 18 KOs), who has faced even weaker competition than Duddy and remains untested.