John Duddy is synonymous with New York and Madison Square Garden, but you get the sense that he couldn't be happier to pass the baton of the city's favourite Irish fighter on to Katie Taylor, the next superstar of Manhattan's famous boxing arena.
After attending Thursday's pre-fight press conference ahead of tonight's superfight between the Pride of Bray and Amanda Serrano I hop on the subway from Penn Station downtown to Chambers Street, and when I arrive Duddy is filling his coffee flask at the end of an active day’s grind at the renowned Trinity Boxing Club in the TriBeca area of Manhattan.
The Derry man, and former world middleweight contender, has been training clients in the traditional gym, where a well-worn boxing ring takes pride of place near the rear of the character-filled old joint.
The gym’s owner is a stalwart of New York boxing, Martin Snow; another old timer clad out in his training attire of black Trinity Boxing sleeveless t-shirt, with his trademark bandana keeping his rock 'n’ roll haircut tucked back off his face.
A few minutes in Martin’s company and there was a temptation to switch subjects as there was an immediate connection, the gym owner being an old friend of my former boxer cousin, big Joe Egan.
"I’m in Joe’s book," Martin tells me with pride, speaking about Joe’s autobiography, the Toughest White Man on the Planet. "Near the front in the chapter on New York."
A third man saunters past, letting Duddy know that he had found the boss man’s secret stash of chocolates.
Martin asks me did I recognise this former world champion.
The Trinity Boxing Club does not appear a place for spoofers, so I look quizzically as he approached closer.
"I knocked Andy Lee down twice," he said.
A photo of the champ on the adjacent wall confirmed that it was indeed Peter Quillin – a great fight with Lee came flooding back into the memory bank, the contest ending in a draw as Lee worked his way back into the encounter and also put Quillin on the canvas in the seventh round.
"That’s right. You didn’t make the weight," I blurted out the first thing that I remembered about him; surely not the crowning memory of a world champion’s career.
Duddy then leads me to a quieter place down the back of the hall, meandering through the line of sturdy punchbags, and before coming to rest, perched on the side of the ring.
Naturally, for the week that is in it, the conversation begins with Katie and immediately Duddy starts singing her praises.
Bursting with a fellow boxer’s pride, the Derry man cannot speak highly enough about the undisputed champ, her quest to conquer, and bringing women’s boxing to the iconic Madison Square Garden.
"Katie got her that pay-day," said Duddy, referring to the fact that Amanda Serrano has been guaranteed a seven-figure sum by promoter Jake Paul.
"If I buy a ticket, it's not the promoter I want to see, it’s the fighter. It’s Katie Taylor.
"The promoters take a lot of credit, but without Katie…
"Katie is a unique individual. She has done for female boxing what many couldn’t do. Even Laila Ali couldn’t do it.
"Olympics, worlds. She was the flag for the Olympics. Unbelievable.
"Katie is unique, she has ticked every box."
Having come straight from the Garden, following Taylor’s press conference, it would later transpire that the dressing room where Katie sat and chatted to the travelling Irish media was the same one that Duddy had occupied 13 years earlier.
Talk of the midtown Manhattan venue brought "Ireland’s John Duddy" back to the glory days when he put bums on seats, many New York Irish bums as it happened, fighting nine times at the iconic arena.
Nine fights, nine wins.
Duddy recalls that at the time he barely noticed the noise as he came out to fight on those incredible occasions, however, he admitted that the hairs stood up the back of his neck when a BBC cameraman got him to watch back some old footage as the crowd chanted "Duddy, Duddy, Duddy".
It really was a golden era for Irish boxing as Duddy, Andy Lee and Matt Macklin had all reached world level, yet somehow never managed to fight each other.
A slight regret, perhaps, for Duddy, who bemoaned the incompetent promoters on all sides that did not recognise the potential for a string of Irish super-fights between the trio in the guise of the Hagler-Hearn clashes, in New York City and back at the Garden, naturally.
Duddy and Lee were eventually matched to fight, however, by that stage he had fallen out of love with the sweet science; an Irish emigrant – at one time among the undocumented – isolated and alone in what is often the loneliest of sports.
In fact, Duddy admitted that he probably stayed in the game one fight too long as he said he had lost interest by the time he fought Julio Cesar Chavez Junior – Duddy’s final fight, losing by unanimous decision for only the second time in his 31-fight career.
"In my last few years of boxing, there was nothing," said Duddy.
"I was done. I was done before I fought Chavez. And it wasn't just that fight, it was for many fights before,
"It's a tough business, it’s very lonely. And for a while my wife wasn’t here, she was back in Ireland. I was here, training, fighting.
"I had a close network of people that all just disintegrated away, and you are on your own. Waking up in an empty bed, training camps, bloody noses, sore heads. The reality of it all.
"And then you look at your cheque, and you think 'is that it?’.
"I was supposed to be enjoying myself, I always did it because I loved it. I stopped loving it, and I got out."
As one theatre door closed, another one opened, as Duddy set off to tread the boards, in a boxing role, as it happened, starring in Kid Shamrock, a play based on the life of Bobby Cassidy.
Further roles would follow, while he also landed a gig helping Robert de Niro train for his role in the 2013 film, Grudge Match.
At this stage of our chat, it was apparent that John Duddy loves to talk about boxing, John Duddy also loves to talk about acting, but combine the two and you really get a sense as to why the man appears such a natural at both.
A recollection of a phone call he received from De Niro one day while driving with his wife, Grainne, where the Hollywood legend asked him would he be interested to come to Panama for two weeks to work on the production of Hands of Stone, a film about legendary boxer Roberto Duran.
Duddy would end up playing the role of Scottish boxer Ken Buchanan – a surreal moment for the former fighter as he grew up with a signed photo of the fighter in the family home back in Derry due to his father's connections with Charlie Nash.
Duddy starred as the lead actor in his latest feature film, A Bend in the River, the story of an Irishman living in America, who returns back to the North to confront the ghosts of his past, while searching for the meaning of home.
And the story of writer-director Colin Broderick really resonated with the New York native who was getting quite emotional thinking of home and all the frustrations that came with visiting in Covid times.
"Me and Colin have very similar stories," said Duddy. "We're immigrants. We’ve come here on a wing and a prayer, let’s see. And wow we’re still here.
"I am an immigrant. That kind of hit me very hard. I was like, 'where is home?'.
"I get it, I don’t live there anymore – but it’s always my home. I don’t care where I am or what my passport says. I’m an Irishman and it’s my home.
"But for the foreseeable future, we’re making a living here, at the moment.
"But being that character, it really brought the reality out of me.
"And when you are here, the memories I have of home are an illusion, because when I go back it’s not what I remember or what I think it should be.
"And this will be home for the next few years."
Eventually, we took the road less travelled back to where the conversation started, to Katie and to Madison Square Garden.
And while Katie takes centre stage, Duddy is making a night of it with family and friends, going back to the Garden to support the latest legend of Irish boxing.
As for the verdict, Duddy could not call it, knowing that it is going to be a close call between two champion prize fighters.
You might imagine, however, as the ring-walk starts and the New York crowd once again chant the name of an Irish fighter, the hairs on this former pro’s neck will once again stand to attention to the chant of "Katie, Katie, Katie".
Follow Katie Taylor v Amanda Serrano with live updates on RTE.ie/Sport and RTÉ News app from Sunday at 2.30am
