Saturday, May 20, 2006
Boxing: Magee rises to challenge of rebuilding his career
RICKY HATTON’S performance in edging past Luis Collazo for the WBA welterweight title in Boston, Massachusetts, last weekend was an eyeopener for Eamonn Magee. The Belfast boxer is the only man to have put Hatton on the floor in his career. Now Magee fancies a rematch.
“I think Collazo was the first really fit young man Hatton had faced, apart from me, and it showed,” Magee said. “I’d love to face him again.”
NI_MPU('middle');
Like Hatton, Magee finds himself as a natural lightwelterweight boxing in a higher division. Tonight, at the King’s Hall, Belfast, Magee — who came back against the odds a year ago when his leg had been smashed by baseball bats in a street attack — defends his lightly regarded WBU welterweight title against Takaloo, full name Mehrdud Takalobigashi, a refugee from Iran who grew up in Kent.
Danny Williams, the Commonwealth heavyweight champion, warms up for his rematch with Matt Skelton on July 8 when he faces Adnan Serin, 30, a Turk based in Germany who has lost four times in 15 bouts.
Amir Khan will have an 1lb weight advantage as he aims for his seventh win as a professional against Laszlo Komjathi, a former European title challenger from Hungary.
www.secrets-of-boxing.com
“I think Collazo was the first really fit young man Hatton had faced, apart from me, and it showed,” Magee said. “I’d love to face him again.”
NI_MPU('middle');
Like Hatton, Magee finds himself as a natural lightwelterweight boxing in a higher division. Tonight, at the King’s Hall, Belfast, Magee — who came back against the odds a year ago when his leg had been smashed by baseball bats in a street attack — defends his lightly regarded WBU welterweight title against Takaloo, full name Mehrdud Takalobigashi, a refugee from Iran who grew up in Kent.
Danny Williams, the Commonwealth heavyweight champion, warms up for his rematch with Matt Skelton on July 8 when he faces Adnan Serin, 30, a Turk based in Germany who has lost four times in 15 bouts.
Amir Khan will have an 1lb weight advantage as he aims for his seventh win as a professional against Laszlo Komjathi, a former European title challenger from Hungary.
www.secrets-of-boxing.com
# posted by Mark @ 4:34 AM
Boxing: Shy family man seeking glory without fame
Boxing: Shy family man seeking glory without fame
ONE of the saddest aspects, to many boxing fans, when Ricky Hatton and Frank Warren parted ways, was that Hatton was lost to terrestrial television.
Hatton’s win over Kostya Tszyu, for the IBF light-welterweight title last June, was before Warren agreed a deal with ITV and when the two split, Hatton was lost to a big crossover audience.
Like his last two bouts, Hatton’s contest with Luis Collazo, the WBA welterweight champion, in Boston on Saturday will be screened on Sky Box Office, which is aiming for 200,000 subscribers.
More than eight million tuned in for the Danny Williams-Audley Harrison heavyweight bout on ITV in December, but Hatton has no regrets. “People ask, ‘Are you disappointed you haven’t been on terrestrial television because you could have become even more of a household name’,” he said.
“It would have raised my popularity but that’s never been high on my agenda. If
I could make my living and win all the belts in the ring and no one knew me, I’d rather have that. I just like simple stuff and if I could achieve anything in boxing and make a good living for my family and children with less people knowing me, then give me that every day of the week.”
www.secrets-of-boxing.com
ONE of the saddest aspects, to many boxing fans, when Ricky Hatton and Frank Warren parted ways, was that Hatton was lost to terrestrial television.
Hatton’s win over Kostya Tszyu, for the IBF light-welterweight title last June, was before Warren agreed a deal with ITV and when the two split, Hatton was lost to a big crossover audience.
Like his last two bouts, Hatton’s contest with Luis Collazo, the WBA welterweight champion, in Boston on Saturday will be screened on Sky Box Office, which is aiming for 200,000 subscribers.
More than eight million tuned in for the Danny Williams-Audley Harrison heavyweight bout on ITV in December, but Hatton has no regrets. “People ask, ‘Are you disappointed you haven’t been on terrestrial television because you could have become even more of a household name’,” he said.
“It would have raised my popularity but that’s never been high on my agenda. If
I could make my living and win all the belts in the ring and no one knew me, I’d rather have that. I just like simple stuff and if I could achieve anything in boxing and make a good living for my family and children with less people knowing me, then give me that every day of the week.”
www.secrets-of-boxing.com
# posted by Mark @ 4:19 AM
Boxing: Who’s the duddy?
Three years ago John Duddy was drifting in Irish amateur boxing. On Thursday he fights before a sellout crowd in New York.
Down at Gleason’s Gym, under the foreboding shadow of the Brooklyn Bridge, the New York fight crowd is congregating expectantly. No fighter apart from Sugar Shane Mosley, twice a conqueror of Oscar De La Hoya, had ever sold out the 5,600-capacity Theatre at Madison Square Garden before John Duddy, a 26-year-old Derry man, signed to meet Shelby Pudwill, from a fighting family in North Dakota, on the night before St Patrick’s Day.
“We sold out last Sunday,” announces Eddie McLoughlin, who handles Duddy under the banner of Irish Ropes Promotions, to the assembled, with obvious delight. “Once you sell 95% of the tickets, it’s officially a sellout. But don’t worry, there’s a few remaining tickets at Jack Dempsey’s.”
As Duddy prepares to work — today he will spar six rounds — a former world featherweight champion holds court in the far corner. Juan Laporte, a Puerto Rican who lives in Brooklyn, once went 10 rounds with Barry McGuigan at the King’s Hall in Belfast.
In his whole career he fought a dozen world champions, from Eusebio Pedroza, Azumah Nelson and Salvador Sanchez to Kostya Tszyu, the great Australian who lost his title last year to Ricky Hatton. He is a good judge and he likes Duddy.
“He fought in the main arena at Madison Square Garden last year (against Patrick Thompson). It took place on the eve of the Puerto Rican Day parade and Miguel Cotto, who’s a hero back in San Juan, boxed in the main event,” Laporte recalls. “The place was packed with Puerto Ricans and there were Irish fans as well. But when Duddy fought, all the Puerto Rican fans got behind him. The way he fights is exciting. They were calling him ‘Juan’ Duddy by the end of the night and I think he got an invitation or two to come down the next day to the parade. They loved him.”
After 15 successive victories, 13 within the distance, Duddy is the talk of New York, his fight posters pinned up in all the Irish bars and clubs in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, all the way out to McLean Avenue in Yonkers.
“I think it will be a night to remember for a very long time,” he says. “It’s the night before St Patrick’s Day and it’s my first chance to fight for a title (the spurious WBC Intercontinental Americas middleweight title). I feel I’m in great shape and I’m really looking forward to it, ready to put on a great show. Lots of people will be travelling over for the parade the next day. So, if anybody’s coming to New York, I hope they come to see the fight as well.”
McLoughlin laughs heartily as Duddy starts to hit one of the heavy bags. “They can come, of course, John,” he declares. “But by Thursday morning, there’ll be no bloody tickets left.”
THREE years ago he thought he had given up boxing for good. A former Irish senior champion, he felt he had gone as far as he could and took whatever work he could find as a lifeguard and a bouncer in and around Dublin.
“All my life I’d dreamt of being a boxer,” says Duddy, whose father, Micky, fought professionally in the early 1980s, frequently sparring with Barry McGuigan in Barney Eastwood’s gym in Belfast’s Castle Street.
“But I was done with the amateurs. I boxed 130 amateur bouts in 13 years, won 100 and lost 30 and I just didn’t want to go on. There was really no pro scene in Ireland and I didn’t think there was anyone around to foster my career. It never even crossed my mind to head for America.”
But McLoughlin and his brothers, Tony and Martin, who run the Irish Ropes Gym in Far Rockaway, New York, got to hear about Duddy’s reputation and contacted him, convincing him to cross the Atlantic to give it a shot. He had some reservations but he decided to go.
www.secrets-of-boxing.com
Down at Gleason’s Gym, under the foreboding shadow of the Brooklyn Bridge, the New York fight crowd is congregating expectantly. No fighter apart from Sugar Shane Mosley, twice a conqueror of Oscar De La Hoya, had ever sold out the 5,600-capacity Theatre at Madison Square Garden before John Duddy, a 26-year-old Derry man, signed to meet Shelby Pudwill, from a fighting family in North Dakota, on the night before St Patrick’s Day.
“We sold out last Sunday,” announces Eddie McLoughlin, who handles Duddy under the banner of Irish Ropes Promotions, to the assembled, with obvious delight. “Once you sell 95% of the tickets, it’s officially a sellout. But don’t worry, there’s a few remaining tickets at Jack Dempsey’s.”
As Duddy prepares to work — today he will spar six rounds — a former world featherweight champion holds court in the far corner. Juan Laporte, a Puerto Rican who lives in Brooklyn, once went 10 rounds with Barry McGuigan at the King’s Hall in Belfast.
In his whole career he fought a dozen world champions, from Eusebio Pedroza, Azumah Nelson and Salvador Sanchez to Kostya Tszyu, the great Australian who lost his title last year to Ricky Hatton. He is a good judge and he likes Duddy.
“He fought in the main arena at Madison Square Garden last year (against Patrick Thompson). It took place on the eve of the Puerto Rican Day parade and Miguel Cotto, who’s a hero back in San Juan, boxed in the main event,” Laporte recalls. “The place was packed with Puerto Ricans and there were Irish fans as well. But when Duddy fought, all the Puerto Rican fans got behind him. The way he fights is exciting. They were calling him ‘Juan’ Duddy by the end of the night and I think he got an invitation or two to come down the next day to the parade. They loved him.”
After 15 successive victories, 13 within the distance, Duddy is the talk of New York, his fight posters pinned up in all the Irish bars and clubs in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, all the way out to McLean Avenue in Yonkers.
“I think it will be a night to remember for a very long time,” he says. “It’s the night before St Patrick’s Day and it’s my first chance to fight for a title (the spurious WBC Intercontinental Americas middleweight title). I feel I’m in great shape and I’m really looking forward to it, ready to put on a great show. Lots of people will be travelling over for the parade the next day. So, if anybody’s coming to New York, I hope they come to see the fight as well.”
McLoughlin laughs heartily as Duddy starts to hit one of the heavy bags. “They can come, of course, John,” he declares. “But by Thursday morning, there’ll be no bloody tickets left.”
THREE years ago he thought he had given up boxing for good. A former Irish senior champion, he felt he had gone as far as he could and took whatever work he could find as a lifeguard and a bouncer in and around Dublin.
“All my life I’d dreamt of being a boxer,” says Duddy, whose father, Micky, fought professionally in the early 1980s, frequently sparring with Barry McGuigan in Barney Eastwood’s gym in Belfast’s Castle Street.
“But I was done with the amateurs. I boxed 130 amateur bouts in 13 years, won 100 and lost 30 and I just didn’t want to go on. There was really no pro scene in Ireland and I didn’t think there was anyone around to foster my career. It never even crossed my mind to head for America.”
But McLoughlin and his brothers, Tony and Martin, who run the Irish Ropes Gym in Far Rockaway, New York, got to hear about Duddy’s reputation and contacted him, convincing him to cross the Atlantic to give it a shot. He had some reservations but he decided to go.
www.secrets-of-boxing.com
# posted by Mark @ 4:15 AM
