By Terence Dooley

John Duddy knows what it feels like to fight at the famous Madison Square Garden venue, and the former fighter has backed compatriot Eamonn O’Kane (14-1-1, 5 early) to win his IBF world middleweight title eliminator at the New York-based arena tomorrow night.

O’Kane meets Georgia-based Bahamian Tureano Johnson on the undercard of Gennady Golovkin’s middleweight title defence against David Lemieux.  The 33-year-old goes into the fight with the full backing of Duddy, who had nine fights at MSG during his career.

“I saw a photograph on Facebook the other night and Eamonn was sitting watching TV and one of my fights came on,” he said when speaking to the Derry Journal.

“The Irish, they always come out to support their own.  I'm sure he will have a great fan base and I know there's plenty coming over from back home as well.  I'm sure it will feel more like a hometown audience for Eamonn than his opponent.

“When I fought Howard Eastman back in Belfast in the King's Hall - which was probably the highlight of my career fighting in the King's Hall - which is our Garden - I came back to New York a week later and everyone was asking me when I was next fighting.  It was a big moment for me but coming back to New York nobody had heard about it.  When I boxed in New York, everyone back home knew about it.”

He added: “It doesn't get any bigger than this for Eamonn.  He's on the undercard of Gennady Golovkin.  He's got a great opportunity to put in a good performance.”

BoxNation will televise the show here in the U.K.

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