It promises to be a real treat for Belfast fight fans and Duddy can’t wait. “I’ve always wanted to fight at the Kings Hall and now I’m going to get the opportunity. When I turned professional the two venues I wanted to fight in were Madison Square Garden in New York and the Kings Hall. I’ve been lucky enough to fight at the Garden now a few times so to add the Kings Hall to the list will be something special..”
The venue has always been synonymous with boxing but it really came to the world’s attention in the mid 80’s when Barry McGuigan headlined there en route to winning the boxing world title. Duddy is hoping that that his career can follow a similar route. The 28-year-old said, “Obviously everyone knows about the Kings Hall from the McGuigan days. That’s over 20 years ago now but people still talk about the atmosphere during those nights and it would be great if we were able to generate that kind of atmosphere again in December.”
While plans to face world middleweight boxing champion Kelly Pavlik are on the backburner for the time being Duddy feels he is closing in on a world title fight. “Definitely that’s something to look forward to for next year but obviously I need to keep winning and that’s what I intend doing again on December 8th.
Promoter Brian Peters says he’s delighted to be bringing big time boxing back to Belfast. “There probably isn’t too many other cities with the kind of boxing tradition that Belfast enjoys but to be honest the fight fans there have been a bit starved of big fights in the last few years. This promises to be an absolutely terrific night of top class boxing. John is going to have a real fight on his hands and I will be confirming his opponent later this week at a press conference in Belfast. I’m looking at a number of attractive matches for the undercard too including a number of title fights. I think it’s going to be a real value for money card and the kind of fight night that will remind people of the great nights at the Kings Hall down through the years.”