By Dan Ambrose: Former WBO middleweight champion Andy Lee (34-3-1, 24 KOs) is hoping to get a fight against #1 WBC Jorge Sebastian Heiland (28-4-2, 15 KOs) in early 2017, and from there a title shot against IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin.
Lee and Golovkin were supposed to have fought each other in 2015, when Lee was the World Boxing Organization 160lb champion. However, Golovkin couldn’t take the fight due to his father passing away.
Lee, 32, subsequently lost his WBO title to Billy Joe Saunders last December after getting knocked down twice in the 3rd round and losing the fight by a 12 round majority decision. Lee hasn’t fought since then unfortunately. However, Lee is still ranked #9 WBC, #15 WBO in the middleweight division.
If he can beat the 29-year-old Heiland, it would put him in as No.1 with the WBC, and that would surely get Lee a shot at Golovkin. For some reason, Lee really wants the Golovkin fight. You would think that he would want another shot against Saunders so that he could avenge the loss, but that’s not going to happen.
The WBO has ordered Saunders to defend against his mandatory challengers in back to back fights once he gets done with his voluntary defense against Artur Akavov next month on November 26.
A fight between Lee and Heiland should be interesting news for the boxing world if it can get put together. Heiland has good punching power and a great record. However, he’s not fought the kind of opposition that Lee has had.
It’s hard to say how good Heiland is because he’s been matched so carefully during his nine-year pro career. What we do know is Heiland has suffered losses to Mateo Damian Veron, Bili Facundo Godoy, Nilson Julio Tapia and Sebatian Zbik. Heiland has also fought to draws against Mateo Damian Veron and Cristian Fabian Rios. For those who might recognize Rios’ name, he’s the guy that former IBF middleweight champion David Lemieux defeated by a lopsided 10 round unanimous decision last Saturday night in Montreal, Canada.
“I am back in training. I decided to take a break after my last fight, which I lost, just to get away from it for a while,” Lee said to “Off The Ball” radio program on Irish radio. “Originally, it was supposed to be a prelim bout against an opponent of our choosing, which would be like a comeback [fight], somebody with a good record, rated in the top 20,” Lee said. “But the way things have developed, there’s a good chance I could fight Jorge Sebastian Heiland, who was the WBC No. 1 contender and beat [retired former title challenger] Matthew Macklin [in Dublin] a couple of years ago.”
It’s probably not a good thing that the 6’2” Lee has decided to stay inactive since his loss to Saunders. Fighters have such a short window in their boxing careers, and it doesn’t make sense for them to lose a year of the prime of their careers unless they’re injured or coming off of a bad knockout loss. In Lee’s case, he just decided to take the time off.
It’s doubt that he’ll be better from having been out of the ring for a year, but I might not matter if he’s only going to be facing Heiland. That’s a fight that Lee probably wins without any problems unless Heiland can clip him with something big. Heiland can probably punch at least as hard as Billy Joe Saunders, and we saw how he was able to drop Lee twice.
Heiland is a southpaw like Lee, so he might not be surprised by his powerful right hook the way that Lee’s opponents Mat Korobov and John Jackson were in the past. Lee was losing both of those fights, but his punching power bailed him out in enabling him to KO both of those guys.
Lee has been a professional fighter since 2006, and he’s had some good fights and some bad ones as well. Lee lost to Julio Cesar havez Jr. by a 7th round knockout in June 2012. Lee made the mistake of backing up against the ropes and slugging with the bigger Chavez Jr. It was unfortunate , because it was a winnable fight for Lee if he had fought smart instead of fighting Chavez Jr’s fight by brawling with him. Lee was knocked out as well by Brian Vera in the 7th round in March 2008.
Lee did come back to avenge that loss three years later in boxing his way to a wide 10 round unanimous decision over Vera. However by the time the two fighters fought each other a second time, Vera was no longer the fighter he was back in 2008.
If Lee does get the fight against Heiland, it could be a tough one given that he’ll be coming off of such a long layoff. Heiland is not the type of opponent you would normally want to fight when you’ve been out of the ring for a year like Lee.
Heiland has been ranked at #1 by the WBC for quite some time, but he’s been unbeaten to get a crack at the world title by Golovkin and Saul Canelo Alvarez and Miguel Cotto before him.
Heiland probably hasn’t helped himself by him taking on such poor oppsotiion in the last couple of years. In Heiland’s last five fights, he’s beaten these fighters: Angel Hernandez (17-18-1), Martin Fidel Rios (17-8-3), Claudio Ariel Abalos (29-13-3), Matthew Macklin (31-5) and Mateo Damian Veron.
“That’s a fight I’d like [with Heiland] and a fight that would make sense for me,” Lee said. “It would lead to a possible title fight with Golovkin, so that’s what I’m hoping is in the works.”
Lee fought to a 12 round draw against Peter Quillin last year in April in fight in which Lee was dropped twice in the 1st and 3rd. However, Lee buckled down and came back strong to drop Quillin in the 7th, and to control the remainder of the fight. It was a close fight that could have gone either way.
Lee would be taking a substantial risk in facing a guy like Heiland after a year out of the ring. We saw what Heiland did to Macklin’s career after knocking him out. If Lee gets knocked out by Heiland, it could be all over for him.