Andy Lee

By Scott Gilfoid: Previously undefeated middleweight prospect Andy Lee was shockingly stopped in the 7th of a scheduled 10-round bout by former star from The Contender reality television series on ESPN Brian Vera (16-1, 10 KOs) at the Mohegan Sun Casino, in Uncasville, Connecticut. The stoppage, however, appeared to come far too quickly, as Lee was still punching back at the time that referee Tony Chiarantano moved in and halted the bout at 2:17 of the 7th round, just after Lee had landed a big left hand. However, Lee was bleeding badly from a cut on the side of his right eye, and had been seriously hurt in the round in the round by a series of right hands from Vera.

The win was especially shocking considering that Lee’s trainer Emanuel Steward had earlier in the week been saying that Lee was a can’t miss future champion in the next year. This loss, however, changes things dramatically for Lee. Even though the fight was stopped a bit early by the referee, Lee showed major vulnerability to right hands shots from Vera, and was hit repeatedly with them from rounds two until the bitter end came in the 7th round.

By Dan Ambrose: Undefeated middleweight prospect Andy Lee (15-0, 12 KOs) will be taking on his most important bout of his early career this Friday when he steps it up a level to fight super middleweight Brian Vera (15-1, 9 KOs) at the Mohegan Sun Casino, in Uncasville, Connecticut. The bout will be aired live on ESPN, giving Lee, 23, a huge nationwide U.S. audience that will be tuning in to check out the young middleweight prospect. If one were to believe the words of his trainer Emanuel Steward, Lee is a can’t miss future champion in the next 12 months time.

However, at this point it’s still only conjecture because Lee has faced only limited competition thus far and it’s difficult to imagine how well he’ll do when he finally steps it up to the 1st tier fighters. Lee, a 6’2” slender southpaw with blinding speed and excellent power, certainly appears to have the talent to make the leap based on what I and many others have seen of him. He already spars regularly with IBF heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko, who towers over Lee at 6’6 244 lbs, yet Lee reportedly is quite competitive in their sparring sessions.

By Eric Schmidt: In the latest boxing news, undefeated middleweight contender Andy Lee (15-0, 12 KOs) will be reportedly fighting former boxing star from The Contender Brian Vera (15-1, 9 KOs) on March 21st, a fight that will be shown live on ESPN’s Fright Night Fights. This is great news for the unbeaten Lee, for many of his fights have been non-televised, giving his fans little option to seeing his fighter other than watching grainy video of him on Youtube.com.

Vera, 26, is a definite step up for Lee, although perhaps not as big as I would have liked. Vera, a super middleweight, was stopped in the 2nd round by Jaidon Codrington in September 2007. There’s no shame in that, because Codrington is a big puncher, but it does suggest that Vera’s chin isn’t perhaps the best considering the early round in which the knockout took place.

Undefeated middleweight prospect Andy Lee (15-0, 12 KOs) destroyed his tough opponent Alejandro Gustavo Falliga (14-4-2, 4 KOs) in a 5th round TKO tonight at the University Sports Arena in Lee’s native Limerick, Ireland. Lee, 23, dropped Falliga four times in the fight, with three of them coming in the fifth round, which prompted for the referee to move in and halt the one-sided slaughter. Before the bout, it was thought that Failliga, 25, would give Lee a tough time, and perhaps test him a little.

However, it was immediately clear from the first round that Falliga was badly over his head in class, and didn’t have either the speed or power to contend with the blazing shots from Lee. In the first round, the southpaw Lee came out standing straight up, shooting his right jab out repeatedly, and occasionally turning it over into a powerful right hook to tag Falliga with it. In a lot of ways, Lee looked like a slender version of IBF heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko, whom he regularly spars with before his fights.

By Chris Thomas: In the latest boxing news, Emanuel Steward, trainer of undefeated middleweight prospect Andy Lee (14-0, 11 KOs), is predicting big things for Lee, saying, according to the belfast telegraph, “Andy Lee is the best prospect in the world…Right now he’s the best middleweight in the world. He can beat Kelly Pavlik right now,” said trainer Steward. It seems pretty ambitious prediction on the part of Steward, considering that Lee still hasn’t faced a quality B-level fighter, much less a top A-level fighter in the class of World Boxing Organization/World Boxing Council middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik.

More specifically, Lee, 23, looked far from impressive in his last fight, a 6th round stoppage of Irish Jason McKay on December 15th, 2007. Lee, who won the little-known Irish super middleweight title, took a lot of head shots from McKay, and seemed to have little defense for the his right hand. It didn’t help Lee that he held his hands down for most of the fight, concentrating on pot shotting McKay. Lee looked decent in the first couple of rounds, as he pounded the overmatched McKay with shots. However, by the 4th round, Lee began looking badly fatigued, showing a problem with his conditioning.