Chavez decisions Duddy

By Harold Kuppelle: Undefeated Julio Cesar Chavez (41-0-1, 30 KO’s) easily defeated an over-matched John Duddy (29-2, 18 KO’s) on Saturday night, beating him by a 12 round unanimous decision at the Alamodome, in San Antonio, Texas. The final judges’ scores were 120-108, 116-112, 117-111. Duddy, 31, just didn’t have the power or the arm length to stand in and trade with the 24-year-old Chavez. Bob Arum, Chavez’s promoter from Top Rank, seemed to get a little carried away after the fight, saying “a star is born.” I wouldn’t go that far. Duddy looked like a B level fighter in the eyes of many before this fight, and looked about the same tonight. .

As good as Chavez looked tonight, I still would give him zero chance against any of the light middleweight or middleweight champions. Supposedly, Chavez is now in line to challenge for the WBC middleweight title against Sergio Martinez. I doubt he will. He’ll probably get put in with Top Rank fighter Miguel Cotto, who holds the WBA junior middleweight crown. That fight would likely be just as much of a mismatch as the Chavez-Martinez fight. I think Chavez needs to fight some top contenders like Daniel Jacobs, Kermit Cintron or Antonio Margarito before he’s put in with a champion. I doubt he would beat of those fighters, though.Chavez needs to fight those guys before getting put in with Cotto. Margarito looks to have slipped some in the past two years. He might be a good option for Chavez now.

Chavez dominated most of the rounds with his harder shots. Duddy just couldn’t get out of the way of anything thrown at him. He tried to take the fight to Chavez and brawl with him on the inside, but Chavez was a much inside fighter than him. And on the outside, Chavez was able to control the action with his crisp jabs and powerful overhand rights. When Duddy would come plodding forward, Chavez would then time him and connect with left hooks to the head. Duddy looked out of his class and took an enormous amount of punishment in the fight. He didn’t have the power nor the speed to really challenge Chavez.