Niles native Billy Lyell shocks Duddy

By JOHN KOVACH

VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF

NEWARK, N.J. — Billy Lyell of the South Side Boxing Club in Youngstown was hoping for an upset win over undefeated Irishman John Duddy Friday night to jump-start his flagging boxing career, in a scheduled 10-round middleweight bout at the Prudential Center in Newark.

Duddy, although entering the fight with a perfect 27-0 record and 17 KOs, also needed a win to boost his mediocre performances of late and raise his stock value in order to try to get a fight with WBC and WBO middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik of Youngstown.

Almost everyone in the audience of 4,000 fans — most of them Duddy supporters — thought the popular Irishman would make quick work of Lyell, a 24-year-old Niles native and recent Youngstown State graduate who had struggled to a 6-4 record over his previous 10 fights.

But Lyell, managed by Pat Nelson and trained by Jack Loew at the South Side Boxing Club along with Pavlik, proved all of the boxing experts and skeptics wrong by controlling the fight and handing Duddy the first defeat of his pro career with a 10-round split decision.

Two of the three judges gave the win to Lyell, 98-92 and 97-93, while the third judge favored Duddy, 96-94, thus giving Lyell a huge victory over one of the most famous middleweight fighters in the world, and an enhanced status in his middleweight class.

“Without a doubt, we will be seeing Billy Lyell ranked in the top 10 in the middelweight class,” said Nelson of his 24-year-old fighter, who improved to 19-8 record with 3 KOs. “Expect to see him in the top 10. This was a huge win.”

Duddy, 29, who was the No. 2- and No. 4-ranked contender for Pavlik’s WBO and WBC titles, respectively, and who came very close to a fight with Pavlik, now must go back to the drawing board to see what happened.

Duddy had been headed for a bout with Pavlik last summer before suffering multiple cuts in a win over unheralded Walid Smichet in February 2008.

Since then, he had won two bouts by unanimous decision and needed an impressive win over Lyell to regain career momentum.

And just the opposite happened, further dousing the chances of a Duddy-Pavlik fight.

The jubilant Nelson said that Lyell controlled the fight throughout.

“Lyell stayed in control from the get-go and landed more punches and showed better defense,” said Nelson. “Lyell controlled the bout from the first round. He was in shape. [Loew] had him in shape.”

Nelson said that Lyell’s “combinations are what kept him in the fight. His jabs and his left hook. He always finished with a hook and had more effective punches.”

Nelson said that Lyell had an answer for most of what Duddy threw at him.

“Duddy would throw an overhand right but Lyell would throw over it. He landed more clean punches and the scoring shows that,” said Nelson.

kovach@vindy.com

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