By Dan Ambrose: Middleweight contender Andy Lee (27-1, 19 KO’s) thinks former world champion Sergio Martinez (48-2-2, 28 KO’s) can beaten by “Basic boxing”, according to an interview at fighthype.com. Although Lee didn’t see Martinez’s win over Darren Barker last weekend, Lee sees Martinez as having problems with a fighter that stays back and boxes Martinez from the outside instead of coming right after him.

This is what Lee had to say in the fighthype.com article “Basic boxing will give Martinez problems because there’s a lot of illusion to what he does. He does a lot of feints, shake, shake, shake and then he explodes. If you’re not lulled into him, if you stay back, you can keep him off balance almost.”

Yes, it’s possible to do that for awhile but Martinez still lands big shots every round even when his opponent stays on the outside, as we saw in his win over the taller 6’0 1/2″ Barker. It didn’t matter that Barker was hanging back, Martinez still was landing long shots every round. Lee might be more of a problem than Barker because of Lee’s longer arms and his right hook he likes to catch incoming fighters with.

However, Lee still gets hit even fighting on the outside and I have strong doubts that Lee could survive 12 rounds against a puncher like Martinez. Lee’s legs looked weak by the 8th round against Brian Vera last Saturday night and he was standing straight up, unable to bend or wide his stance. This took away a lot of Lee’s power and without power, he’ll get destroyed by Martinez. And also his straight up style is going to present a big target for Martinez because there will be much of Lee to aim at.