America at Large/Boxing:Derry middleweight John Duddy will spend this St Patrick's eve the same way he spent the last one - boxing at the Madison Square Garden Theatre before an audience comprised largely of Irish-Americans and New York's expatriate Irish community. Boxing as a professional before a house full of his countrymen will, however, represent a new experience for Limerick's Andy Lee. Like Duddy's, Lee's nascent pro career has played out primarily in the US, but his fights have all been road games, in venues from Detroit to Las Vegas, Mannheim to Memphis.
Duddy's opponent in tomorrow night's main event will be Anthony Bonsante, a 36-year-old Minnesota middleweight better known for having been a charter member of the cast of the TV programme The Contender than for his boxing, which has produced a 29-8-3 record.
Lee will be facing another somewhat shop-worn 36-year-old, former WBA light middleweight champion Carl Daniels of St Louis. Daniels's 49-10-1 is misleading - he has dropped six on the trot, but in two New York fights last year he went the distance with up-and-coming Jaidon Codrington and Curtis Stevens.
Approximately 200 of Lee's friends and family are flying in to watch him perform on the Irish Ropes St Patrick's "Erin Go Brawl" card at the 5,000-seat theatre, where last year Duddy destroyed Shelby Pudwill inside the first round.
Tickets sold out three weeks ago, and although no one should make too much of the fact Duddy and Lee are boxing on the same bill, some inevitably will. "It's a typical Irish thing," said Lee. "We haven't had a top middleweight since Steve Collins. Now there are two of us, and they already want us to fight each other."
Although both won All-Ireland middleweight titles and both fight out of American gyms, the trajectories of their careers could hardly be more dissimilar. Boxing almost exclusively in the northeast, Duddy has established a rabid fan base in New York while accumulating his 17-0 professional record. Lee has never fought a main event, but he has performed twice on undercards featuring heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko, who is also trained by Lee's manager, Hall-of-Famer Emanuel Steward.
"I look at what they've done with (Duddy) and it's been very successful," said Lee. "They've been able to build a fan base in New York, particularly with the Irish community, and, of course, he's done his part by winning and having some very exciting fights.
"It's totally different from the way I've gone. I'm based in a predominantly black city, and in a tough gym, and I have the best trainer in the world," added Lee. "My purses haven't been close to what John is earning now, but I did get a good signing bonus when I turned professional."
Duddy has not boxed in anger since last September's hard-won victory over the Mexican former world champion Yory Boy Campas, a fight from which he emerged with several deep cuts severe enough to earn him a six-month respite from the ring. He professes to be unconcerned about the inactivity, pointing out visa problems encountered in 2004 occasioned an even longer lay-off. (He returned from that eight-month hiatus to score a first-round knockout over Victor Paz.) Although it is a safe bet that but for his The Contender television exposure Anthony Bonsante wouldn't be fighting in New York main event, Duddy bears his foe no resentment over his artificially cultivated fame.
"Boxing is a hard game," said Duddy. "You take advantage of whatever opportunity you can. I would never begrudge another man that."
Lee hasn't had much time to consider Carl Daniels, who wasn't named as his opponent until Tuesday. Andy had been slated to fight another member of the 2004 Olympic class, Cleitan Conceicao, but the Brazilian fell out after losing in California the weekend before last. Veteran Levan Easley was then proposed as a substitute, but Steward rejected Easley on the grounds Lee would be conceding too much heft to a man who normally campaigns at super middleweight.
"They came up with two other guys for me to fight, but one of them got arrested and the other couldn't get off work. (Daniels) is an old pro with a lot of experience," said Lee who has gone a perfect 7-0 since signing with Steward after the Athens Games.
Although they have, at least for the moment, a shared constituency, Duddy and Lee would already seem to be warily eyeing one another. When it was mentioned a few days ago they would be "sharing the bill" on the Erin Go Brawl card, a bristling Duddy corrected the assumption by noting "he's fighting on my card".
"Right now John has established himself as a contender," said Lee. "He's probably two or three fights away from challenging for a world title. I'm perhaps two or three fights away from being where he is now." (Duddy is recognised as a "world champion" by the IBA, a label not even the Derryman appears to take seriously.)
"But there aren't that many Irishmen in the fight game," said Duddy, "particularly in our weight class, so I suppose it (a Lee fight) could happen somewhere down the road."
A meeting between the two may be in the distant future, but a John Duddy fight in Ireland could be in the offing. Irish Ropes have packaged tomorrow night's card for pay-per-view TV, domestically and internationally, with an all-star broadcast team that will include Barry McGuigan and Gerry Cooney.
"It all depends on me getting the job done (tomorrow) night" said Duddy. "I'm sure Irish Ropes have some ideas but we won't discuss it until after this fight. But I definitely want to fight in Ireland at some stage . . . Right now, New York is where it's happening, but this fight will be shown on television in Ireland so I'll have more exposure there. I'd love to go back and put on a show for the Irish people."
