Duddy the latest victim of 'Saturday night jinx'

America at Large:John Duddy engaged in yet another sparring session at his training camp in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania yesterday, writes George Kimball.

The Derry middleweight knows he is fighting in a main event at the National Stadium in Dublin three weeks hence. What he doesn't know is against whom.

Until a few days ago Duddy was under the impression he would be facing Pablo Navascues on October 20th, but the Spaniard withdrew last weekend after allegedly twisting an ankle on a training run. An agreement was then secured with Belgian Jamal Bakhi, but on Tuesday night Bakhi backed out on the grounds that his observation of the Muslim Ramadan holidays would interfere with his preparations.

While the uncertainty hanging over Duddy's Dublin date is distressing, it appears to be just the latest episode of the "Saturday night jinx" which has visited the sport like a plague this fall. What chroniclers of the fight game were hailing as the most exemplary autumn in the history of televised boxing has now seen seven consecutive Saturday night cards that have been either postponed, cancelled or undergone an alteration in the dramatis personae of their main events.

Let's see: the September 7th Fernando Vargas-Ricardo Mayorga bout in Los Angeles was pushed back two months after Vargas's physical examination revealed a low red-blood count. A few days later the September 14th Juan Manuel Marquez-Rocky Juarez featherweight title fight was postponed when Marquez developed an infection to a cut in his hand.

Former heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko was supposed to return to the ring against Jameel McCline in Munich last weekend, but that one was cancelled when Klitschko underwent back surgery in Austria.

This coming Saturday night WBC light-heavyweight champion Chad Dawson was to have defended against top-rated Adrian Diaconu of Romania. Two weeks ago Diaconu, citing a wrist injury, cabled his regrets and was replaced by Epifiano Mendoza, an essentially anonymous Colombian whose presence won't do much to enhance Showtime's ratings on this free preview weekend.

Madison Square Garden was to have staged Samuel Peter's oft-delayed challenge to WBC heavyweight champion Oleg Maskaev on October 6th, but last Friday Maskaev joined the casualty list with a herniated disc.

Earlier this week the WBC elevated Peter to "interim champion" status, but promoter Don King's attempt to create a title fight by cannibalising his own card and pulling Andrew Golota out of his bout with Kevin McBride to fight Peter was frustrated when Showtime turned down Golota.

King still hopes to salvage the show, possibly with McCline facing the "Nigerian Nightmare" Peter in the main event.

What was to have been the first heavyweight title unification since Lennox Lewis-Evander Holyfield II eight years ago had been on the books for October 13th, but WBA champion Ruslan Chagaev, citing an unspecified ailment, pulled out of that one and was replaced by the 44-year-old Holyfield, who will face IBF champion Sultan Ibragimov at Moscow's Khodynka Ice Palace on the appointed date.

Q: What do you call a Russian with a bad back?

A: A heavyweight champion.

The confusion surrounding Duddy's Dublin date, then, would seem to be a logical extension of this exasperating pattern of disorder.

Under the aegis of new trainer Don Turner, the Derryman has been sparring with countryman Alo Kelly and Ukrainian light-heavyweight Sergei Krevchenko (Duddy's old foe, Yory Boy Campas, is due to join their ranks on Monday), even though he doesn't know whether his October opponent will be short or tall, right-handed or left-handed.

What does seem likely is that, whatever its result, the Dublin fight may now turn out to be a lateral move, career-wise, for Duddy.

The raison d'etre for shifting Duddy's operation back home was to enhance his position for a European title fight, but it now seems dubious that a European opponent can be secured for October 20th.

After Bakhi's strategic withdrawal, Brian Peters's matchmaker Tomas Rohan offered the Duddy fight to several useful continental middleweights. Frenchmen Denis Saioni, Thierry Kari and Sebastian Madani all said "non!", and Spain's Ruben Diaz priced himself out of the market by demanding €30,000 to fight in Dublin.

Veteran Robert Roselia remains a possibility, but unless the Frenchman can be persuaded to take the bout, it appears likely Duddy will be matched against one of several South American opponents under consideration.

The leading candidate among that lot, Luciano Leonel Cuello, is young (23) and unbeaten (19-0), but has never fought outside his native Argentina.

"It won't do much as far as the European rankings are concerned, but it may be our only alternative," an Irish Ropes source said yesterday.

"But whoever he fights, John Duddy will be there on October 20th."