Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. remained unbeaten with an unanimous decision victory over "Irish" John Duddy tonight in San Antonio, winning on scores of 116-112, 117-111 and 120-108. Bad Left Hook scored it 115-113 for Chavez, and no one was surprised that Junior got one shutout card among the three officials.
Chavez (41-0-1, 30 KO) was faster than Duddy (29-2, 18 KO) the entire fight, and able to land better at range. Duddy's defense was back to the "old" levels, as he couldn't get out of the way of a lead right, a left hook, a jab, or any other punch Chavez threw at him.
It's the biggest win and best performance of Chavez's young career, but hardly one that should get anyone more excited than they were before. Duddy is extremely limited and while brave, bravery can only get a guy so far. Chavez did something Billy Lyell already did, and something Walid Smichet deserved to have credit for doing. Any possible shred of hope anyone had for John Duddy being more than a knockaround guy in boxing should have gone out the window tonight. He's just not good enough. He's got a reputation as a good TV fighter, and given that he's not much of a risk for anyone with good skill, he won't struggle to find fights as long as he wants them, but he's never going to be a legitimate contender, which everyone fair already knew.
The undercard was as expected. A quick recap of those fights:
- Marco Antonio Barrera UD-10 Adailton de Jesus (100-90, 99-91, 98-92). This was fought at 140, with Barrera coming in at 141 and de Jesus at 138. I have no idea what Marco Antonio Barrera thinks he's going to do at 140 or 135, but based on this performance, it won't work. Barrera's reflexes are very bad at this stage, and if I didn't know any better, I'd have chalked this up as some mediocre fighter doing a Marco Antonio Barrera impression. De Jesus was sorely outclassed even by the old Barrera.
- Raul Martinez TKO-7 Gabriel Elizondo. Elizondo gave it his all, but was down three times before the referee stopped the fight. Decent TV fight, expected result.
- Tomas Villa UD-8 Salvador Sanchez. If Sanchez had a bubble, there it goes. Villa clearly won the fight and was even surprisingly rewarded with a fair decision.
- Jose Benavidez KO-1 Josh Beeman. Beeman's nobody, and blue chip prospect Benavidez finished him off early with a body shot.