Duddy then the world for Lee

12 January 2011 – Jonny Stapleton

The winner of Andy Lee and John Duddys Civil War bout will be offered a World title shot according to Lees manager Emanuel Steward.

The Legendary Kronk trainer is certain the mouth watering all Ireland middleweight clash will finally come to fruition on the undercard of WBC middleweight champion Sergio Martinezs title defence against Serhiy Dzinziruk on March 12.

And Steward claims the victor of the eagerly anticipated bout will not just confirm his status as the best middleweight in Ireland but will get the chance to prove he is the best in the world in the entertaining division.

Steward, who is confident Limericks Lee will beat the Derry Destroyer en-route to becoming a World champion in 2011, said the winner of the on-off crossroads March 12 under-card fight will be given the opportunity to challenge the winner of the Martinez/Dzinziruk main event.

Lee’s trainer, who has worked with 26 World champions, also claimed that if the Irish southpaw beats Duddy and goes in claim a world strap he would consider fighting the Birmingham born European champion of Irish decent, Matthew Macklin.

I am 80 percent certain Andy and John will meet on March 12. Andy was meant to challenge Martinez for the world title but Martinez was forced to take on the mandatory challenger, Steward explained.

Now Andy will fight Duddy and it looks like the winner will then get to fight Martinez, who is the biggest name in the middleweight division, or Dzinziruk depending who wins their fight. Andy Lee is the most logical challenger for a middleweight World title. John Duddy is also a big name in America but he is not as respected as he once was.

Duddy has not put in a performance of note for over three years. Andy will beat John and will then go on to defeat Martinez. Ireland will have another World champion by the end of the year and that will be Andy Lee. Andy will be middleweight champion of the World. When we achieve that we will then look at the possibility of facing Mathew Macklin. That would be another big bout for Ireland and Irish boxing.