Delivering The Goods: Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. W12 John Duddy

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In a bruising fight that makes you wonder why anyone pays any attention to HBO at all, Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr. outpointed brave John Duddy over 12 hectic rounds of give and take at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas.

Both men entered the ring with something to prove. In his last fight, a dull waltz with Troy Rowland on the undercard of Pacquiao-Cotto, Chavez Jr. was so out of shape that he appeared to have crawled out of a cantina just before the opening bell. He later tested positive for a banned substance and the fight was ruled a no-contest. In his first bout under the eye of Freddie Roach, Chavez Jr. proved he was interested in being more than the boxing equivalent of a trust fund baby by brawling with Duddy from bell to bell. Duddy, in the kind of shape that would allow him to pull a steamboat over a mountain and across an isthmus, was looking to earn a big fight in the future and to turn around a career that has been little more than lackluster over the last few years. He, too, achieved his objective last night by kicking up a stir in San Antonio.

Duddy came out for round one like a man who knew where he was going and was happy to get there, pressing behind his jab and throwing combinations, including a three-punch beauty and a pair of double left hooks. Before the round was over, however, Chavez Jr., 160, began to zero in with jabs and straight rights. Duddy, as is his wont, took these flush shots with a stoicism that would have made Seneca proud. Early in the fight Chavez Jr. laid back, content to pick Duddy off with counterpunches and pick his spots. Within a few rounds, however, Chavez Jr. abandoned his finesse game and engaged Duddy in a fierce inside firefight. Although Chavez stands 6’, he prefers to rumble in close, where his left hook, typically doubled up, can cause serious damage.

Rounds three and four saw Duddy press the fight, throwing short shots with precision, but Chavez Jr., 24, always seemed to land the harder punches. Indeed, a few sweeping left hooks had the potential to give Duddy whiplash.

Round five saw Duddy and Chavez Jr. exchange blows–and elbows–in a Futurist blur. At times Duddy, 31, would triple up his left hook, while Chavez worked stinging right hands throughout the last minute of the round. Determined not to let Chavez Jr. take control, Duddy, 159, fired back whenever Chavez connected, and Chavez Jr., it should be noted, connected often. It was a withering pace beneath the hot lights.

Duddy came out bombing early in the sixth, whipping lefts and rights without pause, before settling down to bait Chavez Jr. with foot feints. Chavez Jr., Culiacan, Mexico, soon began picking shots off with his gloves and countering with hard lefts, including a few decoys to the head to camouflage hooks to the body. A right uppercut jolted Duddy about a minute into the round, but, moments later, when Chavez Jr. charged in with his left lowered, Duddy crashed home an overhand right that staggered Chavez Jr. and left him on shaky legs. Duddy followed up with a flurry, but he is no longer the electric finisher of years ago, and Chavez Jr. weathered the assault. In fact, Chavez Jr., derided by some press jesters as a “fake” fighter, waved Duddy in with bravado and opted to continue trading big shots.

More and more Chavez Jr., now 41-0-1-1 (30), began to crowd Duddy and take control. Duddy, New York via Derry, Northern Ireland, tried to make Chavez Jr. pay at every opportunity, unleashing volleys designed to keep Chavez Jr. on the defensive, but some of his shots seemed to be cuffing blows.

Until the eighth, the fight was fairly competitive, but the damage began to accumulate on Duddy during the middle rounds. Bodyshots in particular seemed to take their toll on him. By the seventh, Duddy, who slips to 28-2 (18), seemed to be giving ground a bit as Chavez Jr. attacked relentlessly.

In the eighth round, Chavez Jr. raked Duddy with combinations and hammered him ceaselessly over the last half minute. The ninth round, easily a 10-8 session in favor of Chavez, Jr., was a nightmare for Duddy, who appeared to be on the verge of being stopped. Again and again Chavez Jr. shook Duddy with blows that might have felled the U.S. Mint, but Duddy showed remarkable grit and determination to make it to the bell. The last three rounds were pure hell for Duddy. He was battered every which way but loose and it was remarkable to see just how resilient he really is. Occasionally, Chavez Jr. would pivot to the right to create new angles against his stationary opponent, adding to the carnage by dropping right hands over the top from an oblique position in the ring. Somehow Duddy refused to yield despite taking every conceivable shot possible: hooks, uppercuts from either hand, straight rights, overhand rights, jabs, and bodyshots. A bodyshot left Duddy visibly sagging in the 11th, and Duddy trudged back to his corner wearily.

Instead of coasting when the bell for the final round began, Chavez Jr. came out and tried to finish the job and score the stoppage. Duddy simply refused to comply. He continued to throw punches, and, pathologically incapable of holding or ducking, he took more punishment than necessary. Incredibly, it appeared that Duddy was still trying to win, and he broke off a few eye-catching combinations, but they lacked power for the most part, and Chavez Jr. was still landing the harder blows. When the bell rang to end the fight, the crowd erupted in cheers. The scores were 116-112, 117-113, and an improbable 120-108, turned in by a judge in homage to Gale Van Hoy, perhaps.

For a fraction of the paydays uninspiring HBO stars routinely receive, Chavez Jr. and Duddy concretized notions boxing usually only hints at: courage, tenacity, controlled fury, discipline, and, yes, skill. Although neither boxer is top 10 material, they knew what they were doing in the ring and there was a certain amount of grace involved in the havoc between the ropes. Duddy found openings by throwing multi-punch combinations; Chavez Jr. countered well at times and worked slyly to land his left hook to the body, which is a legitimate weapon. In addition, unlike some of the overpaid headliners ruling a roost not worth the straw its lined with these days, neither Duddy nor Chavez Jr. sought to clinch or spoil.

It was breathtaking stuff between two men who felt they had something to prove in the ring. Duddy was written off long ago as a clubfighter with a regional following; and Chavez Jr. has been lambasted repeatedly by the same folks who drool over fighters who routinely enter the ring as 5 to 1 favorites.

Like Chavez Jr., nervy John Duddy can outdraw Andre Berto and Chad Dawson combined any day of the week. He works hard in the ring and has the kind of dignity unique to a fighter. If only more of the glitterati in boxing fought with that kind of desire–instead of making webinars on the lives of tube worms seem exciting with some of their lifeless performances–no one would have to fudge attendance figures or give away thousands of tickets to hometown bouts. In the end, Chavez Jr. and Duddy put on a fantastic show, fought to the best of their ability, and left everything they had in the ring for concepts all too rare in modern boxing: honor, glory, pride.