By Dan Ambrose: Middleweight contender Andy Lee (25-1, 19 KO’s) ended up stopping contender Craig McEwan (19-1, 10 KO’s) in the 10th round last Saturday night on the undercard of the Sergio Martinez vs. Sergiy Dzinziruk bout at the Foxwoods Resort Casino, in Mashantucket, Connecticut. However, it was one of those kinds of wins where you look like a loser even in winning. The problem with the 26-year-old Lee is that he showed the exact same flaws as he did in his 7th round TKO loss to Brian Vera in 2008.

Lee stood straight up for the entire fight with McEwan, and was easily hit by the Scottish fighter all night long. Lee is ranked #5 WBA, #12 WBC in the middleweight division but he hardly looked like he deserved that ranking. Much of the time, Lee would pull back going straight backwards with his head held high, just begging to be tagged. McEwan obliged him, tagging Lee with combinations one after another until tiring in the 7th.

Lee then took over the fight and controlled the action the rest of the way. Lee put McEwan down with a left hand near the end of the 9th. In between rounds, McEwan’s corner told him to hold onto Lee in the 10th. Instead of following that advice, McEwan came out trying to slug and was taken out with a single left hand to the head. The fight was halted at that point with McEwan seriously hurt.

Lee doesn’t seem to be progressing as a fighter and he doesn’t seem to be any different than he was in his loss to Vera. He may have got the win last Saturday night, but he wasn’t facing anyone dangerous like Martinez, Kelly Pavlik, Dimitriy Pirog, Gennady Golovkin or David Lemieux. Lee is going to have to fix his many flaws if he wants to beat those guys. I don’t think he can. Lee’s just too straight up in his fighting style and his lack of head movement is going to be a problem when he’s finally put in with one of those fighters. I see Lee as one of those career long gatekeeper fighters. He’ll serve a purpose of weeding out some of the lesser guys but I can’t see him ever winning a title. He’s just too flawed.