HUNTER S. THOMPSON once said that “for a loser, Vegas is the meanest town on earth.” Andy Lee emits the air of someone not all too keen on testing that theory.
“I have never been more ready to win the title,” declared the Limerick man ahead of his shot at the WBO Middleweight Championship on Saturday night.
“I have learned a lot over the years. I’ve been in different fights and training camps and have picked up a lot of experience along the way. I’ve taken on a lot of different guys with different styles, been in different situations, faced adversity, and yet I’ve fought my way through. This is my time and my date with destiny.”
Now a veteran of 35 professional bouts, Lee has every right to believe he has paid his dues in that respect. And while for many boxers the chance to perform in Las Vegas would be a crowning glory in and of itself, the 30-year-old has no such hang-ups.
Three previous outings in Sin City, and 21 Stateside fights in all, mean that Lee has already got that particular t-shirt. In fact, having spent the best part of the last decade living in America, his journey across the Atlantic will actually be something of a homecoming.
James Crombie / INPHO
James Crombie / INPHO / INPHO
Lee initially made the move after singlehandedly flying the flag for Irish boxing at the Athens Olympics in 2004. Although the National Sports Council had been eager to secure his services through to the Beijing games, by then Lee was set on joining the professional ranks of Detroit’s renowned Kronk Gym. In truth, the opportunity to ply his trade under the tutelage of hall-of-fame cornerman Emanuel Steward was one he was never likely to refuse.
Having guided the careers of 41 different world champions during his time in the game, Steward’s early musings about Lee suggested he had every faith that number 42 had just arrived. “He’s my Irish Tommy Hearns,” said the legendary trainer about his newest recruit; high praise indeed.
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At six feet plus change and with a reach of 75 inches, Lee certainly had the dimensions. For those outside of Detroit, however, comparisons between the pair began and ended at the scales.
But after 12 knockout wins in his first 15 contests, the notion that this young upstart could go some way to rivalling The Hitman’s exploits was gaining a little more traction.
As early as 2008 Lee found himself firmly in the sweepstakes for a future match-up with then middleweight kingpin, Kelly Pavlik. His fight with Brian Vera in March of that year was mooted merely as a stepping stone to that end. Unfortunately, for Lee at least, the rugged Texan had designs of his own.
In spite of touching down in round one and falling behind on the scorecards, Vera ultimately rallied to force a stoppage in the seventh. Contentious though it may have been, the loss nonetheless ground any talk of world honours into neutral.
Lee got his revenge on Vera in 2011. AP / Press Association Images
AP / Press Association Images / Press Association Images
For the next three years Lee’s career amounted to a whistle-stop tour of Europe and mainland America as he sought to restore his stock. He would rack up eight successive wins during that period, but it wasn’t until he scored a TKO win over unbeaten contender Craig McEwan in March 2011 that he truly came of age.
By year’s end, Lee had not only proceeded to avenge his defeat to Vera with a conclusive points win in Atlantic City, he had also secured a maiden world title shot for the summer of 2012.
Despite this time entering as a heavy underdog against El Paso’s hometown favourite Julio Cesar Chavez Jr, the pattern of the fight would in many ways mirror that of his first clash with Vera. Lee again raced into the lead on all three judges’ scorecards before ultimately being stopped on his feet in round seven.
While that defeat marked another setback in his pursuit of middleweight supremacy, it would be a loss of an altogether different nature which would truly halt him in his tracks. Four months on from that night in Texas, Emanuel Steward passed away aged 68. The bereavement would leave Lee at something of a loose end both personally and professionally, and though he eventually opted to return home to resume his boxing career, he did not fight again until the following year.
Adam Booth, formerly of David Haye and George Groves fame, was the man charged with assuming Steward’s baton. To date the relationship has yielded five victories on the spin. If the first four in the sequence were Lee’s attempt at telling the boxing world that he was back in the mix, the last one was an exclamation point. Having initially struggled to get to grips with budding knockout artist John Jackson, he well and truly arrested the 25-year-old’s development with a highlight-reel right hand in the fifth.
The showcase win would once more vault Lee into the conversation for a title challenge, and when Peter Quillin elected to vacate in early September, the WBO settled on Lee as one of two potential suitors to their throne. The other, Matt Korobov, will be the man in the opposite corner this weekend.
While Lee can rightly boast some stellar amateur credentials of his own, the 31-year-old Russian’s pedigree in that regard is practically nonpareil. Back-to-back gold medal performances at the 2005 and 2007 World Championships, and 300 amateur victories all told, saw him widely touted as one of the sport’s greatest competitors of all time.
Upon his decision to change codes, Korobov was very much welcomed into the professional fold as the man who would be king. On the face of it, his 24-0 record in the intervening years would suggest that the switch has indeed been a seamless one. But despite having now entered his seventh year in the paid ranks, his performances still appear to resemble those of a fighter in transition. As far as his opponent is concerned, that process won’t be ending any time soon.
“Korobov is a good boxer, technically sound, but the major difference is my experience in the ring,” said Lee of his fellow southpaw.
“He was a specialist over four-two minute rounds whereas I’m a seasoned professional who thrives over twelve threes. As the rounds progress, he fades and panics and I certainly will not let him rest.
“I’ll force him to fight every minute of every round and if he’s anything like he was in his last fight I’ll not only beat him, I’ll stop him.”
Those in the Korobov camp may well dismiss these bold claims as standard pre-fight bravado, but that would be to underestimate the lengths to which the Castleconnell native has gone in order to return to the biggest stage. Las Vegas, after all, is the Capital of Second Chances, and Andy Lee is a man intent on seizing his.
World at his fingertips: Limerick’s Andy Lee hoping to hit title jackpot in Vegas
HUNTER S. THOMPSON once said that “for a loser, Vegas is the meanest town on earth.” Andy Lee emits the air of someone not all too keen on testing that theory.
“I have never been more ready to win the title,” declared the Limerick man ahead of his shot at the WBO Middleweight Championship on Saturday night.
“I have learned a lot over the years. I’ve been in different fights and training camps and have picked up a lot of experience along the way. I’ve taken on a lot of different guys with different styles, been in different situations, faced adversity, and yet I’ve fought my way through. This is my time and my date with destiny.”
Now a veteran of 35 professional bouts, Lee has every right to believe he has paid his dues in that respect. And while for many boxers the chance to perform in Las Vegas would be a crowning glory in and of itself, the 30-year-old has no such hang-ups.
Three previous outings in Sin City, and 21 Stateside fights in all, mean that Lee has already got that particular t-shirt. In fact, having spent the best part of the last decade living in America, his journey across the Atlantic will actually be something of a homecoming.
Lee initially made the move after singlehandedly flying the flag for Irish boxing at the Athens Olympics in 2004. Although the National Sports Council had been eager to secure his services through to the Beijing games, by then Lee was set on joining the professional ranks of Detroit’s renowned Kronk Gym. In truth, the opportunity to ply his trade under the tutelage of hall-of-fame cornerman Emanuel Steward was one he was never likely to refuse.
Having guided the careers of 41 different world champions during his time in the game, Steward’s early musings about Lee suggested he had every faith that number 42 had just arrived. “He’s my Irish Tommy Hearns,” said the legendary trainer about his newest recruit; high praise indeed.
At six feet plus change and with a reach of 75 inches, Lee certainly had the dimensions. For those outside of Detroit, however, comparisons between the pair began and ended at the scales.
But after 12 knockout wins in his first 15 contests, the notion that this young upstart could go some way to rivalling The Hitman’s exploits was gaining a little more traction.
As early as 2008 Lee found himself firmly in the sweepstakes for a future match-up with then middleweight kingpin, Kelly Pavlik. His fight with Brian Vera in March of that year was mooted merely as a stepping stone to that end. Unfortunately, for Lee at least, the rugged Texan had designs of his own.
In spite of touching down in round one and falling behind on the scorecards, Vera ultimately rallied to force a stoppage in the seventh. Contentious though it may have been, the loss nonetheless ground any talk of world honours into neutral.
For the next three years Lee’s career amounted to a whistle-stop tour of Europe and mainland America as he sought to restore his stock. He would rack up eight successive wins during that period, but it wasn’t until he scored a TKO win over unbeaten contender Craig McEwan in March 2011 that he truly came of age.
By year’s end, Lee had not only proceeded to avenge his defeat to Vera with a conclusive points win in Atlantic City, he had also secured a maiden world title shot for the summer of 2012.
Despite this time entering as a heavy underdog against El Paso’s hometown favourite Julio Cesar Chavez Jr, the pattern of the fight would in many ways mirror that of his first clash with Vera. Lee again raced into the lead on all three judges’ scorecards before ultimately being stopped on his feet in round seven.
While that defeat marked another setback in his pursuit of middleweight supremacy, it would be a loss of an altogether different nature which would truly halt him in his tracks. Four months on from that night in Texas, Emanuel Steward passed away aged 68. The bereavement would leave Lee at something of a loose end both personally and professionally, and though he eventually opted to return home to resume his boxing career, he did not fight again until the following year.
Adam Booth, formerly of David Haye and George Groves fame, was the man charged with assuming Steward’s baton. To date the relationship has yielded five victories on the spin. If the first four in the sequence were Lee’s attempt at telling the boxing world that he was back in the mix, the last one was an exclamation point. Having initially struggled to get to grips with budding knockout artist John Jackson, he well and truly arrested the 25-year-old’s development with a highlight-reel right hand in the fifth.
The showcase win would once more vault Lee into the conversation for a title challenge, and when Peter Quillin elected to vacate in early September, the WBO settled on Lee as one of two potential suitors to their throne. The other, Matt Korobov, will be the man in the opposite corner this weekend.
While Lee can rightly boast some stellar amateur credentials of his own, the 31-year-old Russian’s pedigree in that regard is practically nonpareil. Back-to-back gold medal performances at the 2005 and 2007 World Championships, and 300 amateur victories all told, saw him widely touted as one of the sport’s greatest competitors of all time.
Upon his decision to change codes, Korobov was very much welcomed into the professional fold as the man who would be king. On the face of it, his 24-0 record in the intervening years would suggest that the switch has indeed been a seamless one. But despite having now entered his seventh year in the paid ranks, his performances still appear to resemble those of a fighter in transition. As far as his opponent is concerned, that process won’t be ending any time soon.
“Korobov is a good boxer, technically sound, but the major difference is my experience in the ring,” said Lee of his fellow southpaw.
“He was a specialist over four-two minute rounds whereas I’m a seasoned professional who thrives over twelve threes. As the rounds progress, he fades and panics and I certainly will not let him rest.
“I’ll force him to fight every minute of every round and if he’s anything like he was in his last fight I’ll not only beat him, I’ll stop him.”
Those in the Korobov camp may well dismiss these bold claims as standard pre-fight bravado, but that would be to underestimate the lengths to which the Castleconnell native has gone in order to return to the biggest stage. Las Vegas, after all, is the Capital of Second Chances, and Andy Lee is a man intent on seizing his.
Carl Frampton will make his first world title defence early next year
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