By Jason Kim: Middleweight contender Andy Lee (27-1, 19 KO’s) put in a virtuoso performance in avenging an earlier defeat against Brian Vera (19-6, 12 KO’s) by beating him by a 10 round unanimous decision last Saturday night at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

Lee, ranked #2 WBA, #6 WBC, picked Vera off like a matador controlling a bull in skillfully jabbing and landing beautiful right hooks and uppercuts to pick up one of Lee’s biggest wins of his career. The judges scored it 99-90, 98-91 and 99-90.

Lee knocked Vera down in the 2nd with a left hook to the head catching Vera perfectly with a hard shot. It was never even competitive as Vera was out of his league in this fight and it showed on his face. Vera looked discouraged by the 3rd round, as the fight was completely different from their first bout in 2008, a bout in which Lee traded with Vera in a one on one battle that saw very little defense between the two of them. In the rematch last Saturday, Lee moved around the ring and never let Vera get a stationary target. It was a brilliant fight by Lee and a lot of credit has to go to his trainer Emanuel Steward for coming up with the perfect game plan for Lee to beat Vera.

With this win, Lee could find himself in a fight against WBC Diamond middleweight champion Sergio Martinez, who defeated Darren Barker last weekend by an 11th round TKO win. Martinez is running out of opposition to fight, and none of the big-named stars want anything to do with him.