AMERICA AT LARGE:JOHN DUDDY, having wrapped up a five-week training camp in Florida, arrived in New Jersey this week and, when we caught up with him yesterday morning, had just completed an hour-and-a-half shake-out at the Combat Gym in Newark.

Tomorrow night the Derry middleweight will face Ohio’s Billy Lyell in the featured attraction of Main Events’ third boxing card at the new Prudential Center, the home of the New Jersey Devils of the NHL. The previous shows featured Polish cruiserweight Tomasz Adamek, who won the IBF world title from Steve Cunningham there in December and defended it against Emanuel Steward-trained Jonathan Banks in February.

Duddy was on hand for the latter event, and pronounced the atmosphere that night “electric”. “You could see the way the Polish community turned out for him,” recalled Duddy. “The whole place was like a sea of red and white. I’m hoping to do the same thing Friday night – only turn it green.”

Just over a month ago Duddy’s erstwhile promoters, Irish Ropes, were forced to cancel an Andy Lee-headlined St Patrick’s Day card in the face of lagging ticket sales, and at the time blamed the economic climate. (They subsequently blamed Lee, which was even more absurd.) Does Duddy feel any additional pressure to turn tomorrow night’s event into a box office success?

“Well, there’s never been any problem with the Irish community supporting me,” he pointed out. “It’s my understanding the tickets have been moving right along.”

Promoter Kathy Duva said: “You never really know until the night of the fight. But my understanding is that we’re a little ahead of the last Adamek fight here, and we’re expecting a big walk-up on Friday evening.”

Duddy insists he experienced no schadenfreude at the cancellation of last month’s show. “I was unhappy to see it not happen,” he said. “I had a lot of friends who were going to fight that night.”

Duddy’s opponent, Lyell, is a middleweight of modest accomplishment and probably the least-threatening foe he will have faced in several years, but, said the Derryman, “In boxing, nobody’s easy. And for some reason when they come to fight me they’re always giving 110 per cent. I don’t ever count anybody out, because I learned a long time ago you can never take an opponent lightly.”

Back in February, Duva, Main Events attorney Pat English and matchmaker Russell Peltz had all voiced a preference for Donny Orr as Duddy’s Newark opponent. Although unbeaten, the former Canadian Olympian isn’t in the Irishman’s class and would likely have been beatable, as Duddy could have told them. (Orr boxed on the undercard of Duddy’s fight against Charlie Howe in Boston last summer, and while he won his bout against Roberto Valenzuela, he was extended the distance by the shopworn Mexican opponent.)

Duddy’s new advisor, Craig Hamilton, though, was apparently wary of the Canadian’s 14-0 record and ordered Peltz to look elsewhere.

One can’t help but wonder: if Hamilton worries about Duddy beating Ronald Hearns and Donny Orr at this stage of his career, who does he think he can beat?

Billy Lyell, evidently. By almost any definition, he represents a step backward for Duddy. His 18-7 record has been accomplished against some pretty undistinguished company, and he has not fared well on those occasions he has stepped outside his local, rust-belt circuit.

He and Duddy have one common foe, former 154lb champion Yory Boy Campas, and Lyell lost to Yory Boy two years ago – after Duddy had beaten him in New York.

One of the few other recognisable names on his CV is James Kirkland, the undefeated Texas light middleweight scheduled to box on next weekend’s Manny Pacquiao-Ricky Hatton card in Las Vegas. When Kirkland fought Lyell in California two years ago he required just 34 seconds to dispose of him.

More telling is that Kirkland has stopped only three of his 25 opponents. Since this would include not only knock-outs and fights stopped by the referee, fights where the corner threw the towel in and those stopped by a ringside doctor, it stands to reason that a man with 18 wins should have won more than that by knock-out, if only by accident. (Two of Lyell’s knock-out victims were making their pro debuts, and the guys he knocked out boast an aggregate record of 3-29.)

Since the evidence strongly suggests Lyell was chosen because he seems extremely unlikely to hurt Duddy, one can’t even accord him the proverbial “puncher’s chance”. How can you give a guy a puncher’s chance if he can’t punch?

And if the goal is still to keep Duddy on track for a world title challenge, it’s hard to see how fights like this help.

Although Duddy has, for the moment, retained his position in the world rankings, his reputation has taken a couple of hits from circumstances beyond his control.

Before his relationship with Irish Ropes imploded , Duddy had been lined up to fight Ronald Hearns in a January New York bout televised by Showtime. Although Hearns was also unbeaten, he had been brought along even more timidly than Duddy and was considered ripe for the picking. The fight, and its six-figure purse, remained available even after the break-up with Irish Ropes, but Hamilton, who may have been the only man in boxing who thought Hearns posed a threat to Duddy, vetoed the fight in favour of an undercard appearance against Matt Vanda at the Garden in February. Duddy performed admirably in that one, dominating the first nine rounds with his boxing, but then had to withstand an all-out assault over the 10th to preserve his victory.

Having been spurned by Duddy, Hearns agreed to a Showtime fight against Harry Joe Yorgey at the Buffalo Run Tribal Casino in Oklahoma last month. Yorgey, whose 21-0 record was considered suspect, in part because it included at least a few of the same bums Lyell was beating, scored a convincing, ninth-round knock-out. Since Duddy didn’t even see the fight on television, he deprived himself of the sensation of watching €100,000 or so evaporate before his eyes.

“It just goes to show you, you can’t overlook anyone,” said Duddy. “It’s too bad, but that’s boxing. All I know is I’m still undefeated.”

And last weekend, at the Montreal Casino, Peter Manfredo Jr, a second-tier contender who in the past two years had been knocked out by Joe Calzaghe, and Sakio Bika and lost to Jeff Lacy, scored a convincing knock-out of Walid Smichet, the Tunisian who had come within an ace of beating Duddy in a bloody bout at Madison Square Garden last year.

Manfredo proclaimed “I want Duddy” before he even got out of the ring in Montreal. He and promoter Jimmy Burchfield plan to be at ringside in Newark to reissue the challenge in person.

“I, for one, would love to promote that fight,” said Duva. “But that would be up to Craig Hamilton and John, not me.”

“Oh, everybody calls me out these days,” laughed Duddy. “If he shows up in Newark Friday night, I hope he’s prepared to buy a ticket.”