Andy Lee vs. Alexis Hloros on March 10th

By Allan Fox: Middleweight contender Andy Lee (27-1, 19 KO’s) has decided to take the safe path for his next fight by facing little known 32-year-old 2nd tier middleweight Alexis Hloros (16-4-2, 12 KO’s) on March 10th at a still to be determined venue, according to Irish Boxing News.

Lee, 27, could have faced unbeaten Peter Quillin on the undercard of Matthew Macklin vs. Sergio Martinez fight on March 17th at the Madison Square Garden in New York, but Lee instead felt the risk was too much for the money involved in the fight and instead pulled out of the HBO televised fight in order to take this little known opponent. This will likely not be televised because there’s just no reason for it to be shown on national television due to the one-sided nature of it.

Hloros has lost two out of his last four fights, losing to Cameron Allen and James Kirkland. The loss to Kirland was a 2nd round TKO with Hloros hitting the deck twice in the 1st round. In watching some of Hloros’ past fights, I was struck at how short and slow the guy is for a middleweight. He looks to be no taller than 5’8″, has very limited punching power, mainly favors his right hand to a large degree and has slow hands.

This is simply put a mismatch. Lee is going to destroy this guy and not get much out of it. However, this is a stay busy fight for Lee, who is hoping to get a title shot against WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. on June 2nd if the WBC allows Chavez Jr. to skirt around mandatory challenger Sergio Martinez for a second time. That’s the big question right now because World Boxing Council president Jose Suliaman is making noises right now like he won’t permit Chavez Jr. to maneuver around Martinez this time. But I expect Chavez Jr’s promoter Bob Arum to smooth things over with Suliaman so that Chavez Jr. can continue to skip his mandatory for as long as he needs to in order for Arum to make other fights to where Chavez Jr. has a chance to win them.

Lee, #2 WBO, #3 WBA, #6 WBC, defeated Brian Vera by a 10 round unanimous decision in his last fight last October. That was an especially pleasing win for Lee, because Vera is the same guy that stopped Lee in the 7th round earlier in his career in March 2007. Lee improved and was able to easily beat Vera in the rematch without getting hit too many times.

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