BOXING:UNBEATEN IRISH middleweight John Duddy's hopes of a world title shot this summer have been dashed after he sustained bad cuts around his eyes against Walid Smichet. Duddy (28) survived a scare on his return to the Madison Square Garden ring in New York following a three-fight campaign on home soil during the last six months of 2007.

In what was supposed to be a warm-up bout for the unbeaten Derryman ahead of an expected world title challenge against Kelly Pavlik, a lacklustre performance and woeful defence meant he could only edge a split-decision over Tunisian Smichet.

Duddy had been expected to be confirmed as the opponent for Pavlik's first defence of his undisputed middleweight championship in the same arena on June 7th.

Pavlik and his promoter, Bob Arum, were at ringside ahead of the scheduled announcement, which was set to follow Wladimir Klitschko's heavyweight unification victory over Sultan Ibragimov. But their plans had to be shelved after Montreal-based Smichet opened up a deep cut above Duddy's left eye.

Smichet also cut the Irishman above his right eye as judge Frank Lombardi scored the 10-round fight a 95-95 draw, although judges John McKaie and Don Trella each scored it a rather generous 98-92 to stretch Duddy's professional record to 24-0 .

The decision delighted Duddy's large contingent of fans in the arena but drew many boos from non-partisans in the 14,011 crowd and the cuts prompted Arum to look elsewhere for Pavlik's next opponent. "I don't think Duddy is going to be ready because of the cuts," Arum said. "We're going to have to go to the drawing board and check out all the other middleweights."

Arum emphasised a Pavlik-Duddy fight was still on the cards for 2008, saying: "Maybe we'll have to fight Duddy down the road because Kelly is looking to fight three more times this year. So there'll be plenty of opportunity to fight Duddy if he doesn't fight him immediately."

Duddy said after the fight: "I made it difficult on myself. I didn't let my fast hands work and didn't let my punches fly the way I usually do.

"I was happy that I won but I was disappointed with my performance. I trained much better than I looked in the ring. I think I was trying too hard."

Smichet felt aggrieved the decision had gone against him, saying: "Look at my face, look at his and you tell me who won the fight."

At ringside was Duddy's fellow Irish middleweight Andy Lee, who said he felt Duddy was a better boxer than his performance against Smichet suggested.

"Smichet had nothing to lose and came out with all guns blazing in the early rounds trying to cause an upset, which he nearly did. But John came more into it as the fight progressed although I have seen him box a lot better than this." said Lee.

Duddy and Smichet met on the Wladimir Klitschko/Sultan Ibragimov undercard. Klitschko, who had Irish middleweight Andy Lee's coach Emanuel Steward working his corner, won the IBF/WBO unification bout after earning a unanimous decision.

Overall if was a good night for Steward and Lee and the Detroit Kronk at the Garden as elsewhere on the undercard Lee's stablemate Johnathon Banks stretched his unbeaten run to 19 following a first round demolition of ex-world champion Imamu Mayfield.

Steward will meet Arum today amid suggestions that unbeaten Lee could challenge Pavlik sometime this year.

Arum has been a long-term admirer of the Limerick southpaw and wanted to sign the ex-Irish Olympian to a promotional deal but Lee was reluctant to commit as it could have restricted him to three pay-per-view fights for a year.

Lee added: "I wouldn't read too much into our meeting with Bob Arum. We are just having talks today about a few things that's all. But I don't think that I have to wait until the end of the year to challenge for a world title as I am know that I am ready to go for it right now."

Klitschko promised to unify all the heavyweight titles as soon as possible after adding the WBO crown to his IBF and IBO belts. Ukrainian Klitschko earned a unanimous decision (119-110, 117-111, 118-110) over Russia's Ibragimov in the first heavyweight unification fight since 1999.

That left WBA champion Ruslan Chagaev of Russia and the winner of next month's WBC title showdown in Mexico between Samuel Peter and Oleg Maskaev as obstacles to Klitschko achieving heavyweight domination.

With older brother Vitali Klitschko on the comeback trail and having been promised a match with the winner of Maskaev-Peter, that leaves Chagaev as the next realistic target.

"I'm ready to fight again as soon as possible," Klitschko said. "I fought 12 rounds just but I didn't get hurt and I wish I could get another champion. Next month we have Samuel Peter and Oleg Maskaev fighting so we'll see what's happening there but my brother, Vitali, will be stepping in so we'll let him handle it.

"The WBA situation is Chagaev fighting somebody so we'll see if we get a chance to unify all the titles."

Klitschko praised Ibragimov for putting his title on the line when he was under no obligation to do so. "I want to say thank you to Sultan Ibragimov for taking this fight because boxing fans are tired of all the sports politicians and all the talk about unification that never came," Klitschko said.

"We made this happen and it's great for the sport first of all. The heavyweight division needs an undisputed champion, we need a person to carry this title."

Both Klitschko and Ibragimov were booed throughout the fight as they failed to give the crowd any real fireworks over 12 rounds.