Charlie Nash, a former Irish Olympian who waited too long before turning pro in the '70s and warned him not to make the same mistake. Tony Smith, a heavyweight from back home who tried and loved New York and warned him not to piss away his life and his talent in the north. The McLoughlin brothers from Westmeath, who saw him box as a kid and were anxious to bring him to America when news came through he was going pro.

A long line of faces, a long line of fights, a perfect record and a perfect reputation. It's hard to know where it started for John Duddy but it all very nearly ended last Friday in Madison Square Garden.

In his 17 previous fights as a professional, he'd never been taken to 12 rounds before. The middleweight won his first bout in 2003 in the Bronx courtesy of a first-round knockout and since then 14 more have ended long before the race was run. He'd never been cut either. Never been hit so hard. But last Friday, when he won a unanimous decision against Luis Ramon Campas, he was sliced open in the second round. By the finish his right eye had opened up three times, his left once. He needed 24 stitches to close the wounds. But he'd come through it. He'd added the IBA World Middleweight title to his WBC Continental Americas crown. Another step taken.

"Well a belt is a belt and it's getting me where I want to go which is the very top. But last Friday I think the actual fight and the opponent I had overshadowed it all because I remember watching 'Yuri Boy' Campas when I was younger. Here was a guy who had been in the ring with Oscar De La Hoya and Fernando Vargas and Felix Trinidad. He's a guy with 88 wins and the fact I was able to take his best and come out on top, well I was kind of pleased with myself. Sure, it was definitely my toughest fight. Every time I was getting hit harder than ever before, I was getting hit with things other than fists as well. But I showed I could take that and come out on top.

Even when he started well and took the opening few rounds, I was just thinking I had to buck up and get my gameplan going. He is the older man and I had to keep plugging away and try and get through it and get my shots off first. He caught me early and I thought I've a spot on my eye and then, 'Holy shit, I must be cut'. What do you do? You have to get back in. You can't be thinking about this. You have to win."

By Thursday his doctor was pleased with his recovery. The stitches were taken out one by one. The headache that lasted for a few days had eased and he was out and about, as popular as ever. You see, Duddy has become big in New York. He's become a regular fixture in the theatre in Madison Square Garden. His promotion to the top of the bill is as much to do with his ability to sell tickets as it is to do with his staggering rise through the rankings . . . he know stands at number 11 in the WBA list and has moved to five in the WBO rankings, where he's getting ever closer to a possible world-title shot against current champion Jermain Taylor.

"I'm under no illusions and I'm sure my promoters and managers are trying to sell me because of where I'm from and I always felt I was very fortunate to be born in Ireland. If I had been a singer or a writer it would have been the same because the Irish people always come out from everywhere no matter where you are in the world and if you are trying to get ahead there is always that great support.

I'm sure with my victories and the way some have come, all that has helped me expand beyond the Irish audience here and I've now fought on a few cards with Puerto Ricans and Mexicans and their fans like the way I fight.

Long may it continue. Long may I keep pulling the performances out of the ring and winning and climbing the ladder. But being Irish is a great advantage."

John 'Jackie' Duddy was Irish. An uncle of John, it's where he got his name. Only for him, being Irish wasn't an advantage. He boxed too, you know, and on 30 January 1972 some things about the Derry air must have reminded him of stepping out onto the canvas. The noise, the frantic excitement, the heavy breathing, the adrenaline and buzz and suddenly, the sharp shock of pain. At 17 he was there on Bloody Sunday. He was the first to be shot. Initially those around him thought it was a rubber bullet until they saw the look of anguish in his face. His life was ended that day.

"I don't mind talking about it but I'd like to say even over here, at the very beginning, Bloody Sunday was mentioned quite a bit and with a tribunal going on I was asked about it a lot. Everyone was like, 'That's Jackie Duddy's nephew'. But my father was only young at the time, only 11 or 12 when it happened, so it was all a long time ago. Jackie boxed but as much as I'm here boxing and I'm his namesake, I'm fighting for one person and that's me.

Sure, I hope he's looking down and proud of what I'm doing but it can't be any other way.

There's family members in our house that have been involved in the tribunal and have been working hard all these years to try and get an outcome and for me to start voicing my opinions and talk like I'm Jackie Duddy's nephew and draw attention to me for that reason, that's not right or fair and they all know that I'm not like that.

"Besides, it was never really talked about in the house, it was just accepted as a part of our history. I had the usual growing-up problems but the Troubles never really had any sort of impact on my life. It would have had more of an effect on my mother and father and to be honest, I credit them with the way they raised me. We were never raised towards any type of sectarianism no matter what had happened in the past. My dad said that if someone treats you with respect, you give it back. If they don't, just make sure they don't walk over you and that was always the way.

Boxing was a benefit for me in that regard because I was always able to travel to Dublin and Cork and even Belfast. And going to west Belfast or east Belfast, they still all applauded you. That's another thing I loved about the sport because you make friends no matter where you go. So as I said, it's not fair for me to use Jackie Duddy to get attention.

I'm going to go home some day and I want to be able to hold my head high when I do."

When he does return home, he hopes it's to box. It's all he ever wanted. As a kid in Derry, his careers teacher asked the class to write on a piece of paper what they wanted to do.

On seeing John's answer, she told him boxing wasn't an option. He protested but can't remember anymore what it was she scribbled in for him.

"It's always been everything to me. When I was a kid it was all about Barry McGuigan.

When I didn't eat my vegetables, my dad would tell me that Barry McGuigan eats his and the next thing I'd be chomping away like they were all I ever ate. He was a pro so as much as I enjoyed the amateur side of things . . . and I was very fortunate through that to get to see places like Cuba and Russia . . . I wanted to be a pro. For that reason I was kind of disillusioned with boxing back home and back in Derry I found myself getting into a rut.

The McLoughlins gave me a lifeline, they asked me to come to New York. When I came here and walked into Gleeson's Gym, I felt like a kid walking into a gym for the first time. New York is second to none for boxing with the many different fighters and styles and coaches and nationalities. You grow fast here too.

When you are 20 or 21 all you want to do is be the popular guy, the party boy, live that lifestyle. But when I came here it was for business. I came here with one thing on my mind, which was to be a fighter. Like on St Patrick's Day, I was in Gleeson's training and some guys came in and said, 'You're Irish, why aren't you in a pub?'

"I think in New York I've found something different in myself. You've got so much more.

Museums, Broadway, musicals. Just different things to occupy your mind with. But I've one thing on my mind and that's all I want. And having my girlfriend here has helped me settle. Grainne came over with me at the start and I really mean this, wherever I am, as long as she's with me, that's home.

Always will be."

And all that made it much tougher to go back. Three years ago, at 24, he realised he could make it but was in America illegally. He went home to get it sorted but seven weeks of expected waiting became seven months of his career torn away from him. He took his old job as a lifeguard in a leisure centre in Derry, worked in a post office and as a bouncer at nights, all simultaneously, all because he couldn't leave his mind free to think about what he was missing.

"I was depressed for a very long time when I was back because I just found out I was good enough to do what I wanted to do and there was a great opportunity and New York had told me I was good enough. Then to be told to stop, that you can't do this anymore, I was just totally gobsmacked. I didn't know what I was doing when I was back in Derry that time. But there are so many others here. My girlfriend, when she came out here first, there were problems with her getting a visa. I think there are a lot of people that came and life turned out to be better than they expected and now they are looking over their shoulders ever since. They are working, they have families, their kids are in school but they are not safe. They are afraid to go back home. They come here to give it a go and never get their paperwork right and all of a sudden they have a great life for themselves but they can't go home because they are not legal. It would just make a lot of peoples' lives a lot easier for these visas to be coming through. And not just for Irish, but for all the groups. This is supposed to be the land of opportunity.

"I guess it's why I got involved with the Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform.

They asked me to attend some of their meetings and I've met with some senators at rallies and things. I suppose it's good because the fact I'm seen asking a question, the local papers will see it because a local boxer says it. When I came here first I wasn't legal and after everything I went through, I'd hate to see others having to do something similar. But at the same time, I can't help thinking this is all funny. I keep thinking, 'Who am I to be doing this?' I'm the same as every other Irish person that came here with a dream and I'm trying to live it. Why would anyone want me of all people to stand up for their cause because, as I said, who am I?"

Who is John Duddy? A contender but much much more.

THE FIGHTING IRISH . . . OUR 16 WORLD CHAMPIONS JACK DEMPSEY From Kildare, 'The Nonpareil' earned a chance to battle George Fulijames, who had recently claimed the middleweight championship, in 1885. Dempsey knocked Fulijames out in the 22nd round to become the American . . . some said world . . . middleweight champion.

Dempsey became undisputed middleweight champion with his victory over Australian Billy McCarthy.

JACK McCAULIFFE The Cork "ghter was one of the greatest lightweights to ever throw a punch. He was only one of nine men to retire unbeaten and was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1995.

He took the lightweight title in May of 1885 when Jimmy Mitchell refused to step into the ring with him.

'IKE' O'NEIL WEIR A lightning quick boxer with a sharp left hand, the man from Lurgan was also famous for being a champion jockey, trick shooter, acrobat, traditional Irish dancer and for turning somersaults as he entered the ring. Captured the featherweight title in 1889 against Frank Murphy.

DAVE SULLIVAN Another Cork man, became featherweight champion of the world in September of 1898. Having previously lost out in a title bout for the bantamweight crown, he stopped Solly Smith in Brooklyn in "ve.

GEORGE GARDNER From Lisdoonvarna in Clare, Gardner took the light heavyweight championship against Jack Root in Fort Erie, Ontario in July 1903 but lost it in his next bout later that year to the great Bob Fitzsimmons.

JIMMY GARDNER Brother of George, the pair became the "rst and only Irish siblings to be world champions when Jimmy captured the world welterweight crown when beating Mike 'Twin' Sullivan in 1908 in Los Angeles.

TOM McCORMICK From Dundalk, he took the world welterweight title from the Dane Waldemar Holberg in Australia in 1913. He lost it a year later to Matt Wells and after that defeat was never the same boxer that had been on top of the world. McCormick was killed while serving in France during the "rst world war in 1916.

MIKE McTIGUE Defeated Senegal-born Battling Siki on St Patrick's Day, 1923, winning in 20 rounds to take the light heavyweight championship. The "ght took place in La Scala Opera House off O'Connell Street as the Civil War raged outside. Despite that, 1,500 spectators did pack in to see 'Bold' McTigue take the title.

JIMMY McLARNIN From Hillsborough in Down, 'Babyface' defeated 13 champions in his career and was a two-time welterweight champion, winning his "rst belt against Young Corbett III in 1933.

RINTY MONAGHAN From Belfast, became undisputed "yweight champion in March 1948, but the title was vacated two years later when he retired due to chronic bronchitis.

JOHN CALDWELL Having won a bronze medal at the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne, he went on to take the world bantamweight title in 1961, defeating French-Algerian "ghter Alphonse Halimi. Tried to unify the division the following February but was beaten in front of 26,000 in Sao Paulo by the legendary Eder Jofre.

DAVE McAULEY From Larne, 'Boy' was one of Northern Ireland's favoured "ghters. Among his most famous bouts were two brutal encounters with Colombia's Fidel Bassa.

He took the IBF "yweight title at the King's Hall, Belfast in 1989 after getting the better of Duke McKenzie.

BARRY McGUIGAN 'The Clones Cyclone' beat Eusebio Pedroza in London to take the WBA middleweight title in 1985, dropping the champion in the seventh and winning a unanimous 15-round decision. Last year he was entered into the International Boxing Hall of Fame.

EAMON LOUGHRAN Captured the WBO Welterweight title in Belfast, defeating Lorenzo Smith in 12 in 1993.

The Ballymena man held the title for three years until he was knocked out by Jose Luiz Lopez.

STEVE COLLINS Captured the WBO middleweight crown in 1994 by disposing of Chris Pyatt.

Relinquished the title without a defence to move to supermiddleweight where he captured the WBO version a year later, ending Chris Eubank's undefeated record.

WAYNE McCULLOUGH 'The Pocket Rocket' from Belfast won a silver medal in the '92 Olympics. In 1995, less than two and a half years after turning pro, he took the WBC world bantamweight championship by beating Yasuei Yakushiji in Nagoya, Japan. Moved up in weight where he was unsuccessful against champions Naseem Hamed and Erik Morales. Still boxing out of Las Vegas.