Andy Lee vs. Willie Gibbs: Is Andy Overrated?

lee3646461.jpgBy Chris Williams: Popular Irish middleweight Andy Lee (15-1, 12 KOs) will be making a minor comeback on July 19th against American Willie Gibbs (20-3, 16 KOs) in a scheduled 10-round bout at the University Arena, in Limerick, Ireland. In his last fight, the 24 year-old Lee was stopped in the 7th round by Brian Vera (16-1, 10 KOs) on March 21st. For most fighters, there’s no shame in losing to a fighter in the class of Vera, who after all was a former star on The Contender reality television boxing series on ESPN2. Lee wasn’t supposed to be losing to anyone, especially a fighter like Vera who was considered to be a notch or two lower than the highly hyped Lee in most people’s minds.

Perhaps it was this kind of belief that made Lee careless in the fight, rushing out and trying to slug it out with the equally powerful, albeit slower and less skilled, Vera in the opening rounds of the fight. Even with his badly flawed plan Lee almost succeeded in taking Vera out in the 1st round after knocking him down late in the round with a heavy left hand shot. It happened at the end of the round, much to Lee’s regret, which allowed Vera to escape the round without taking any more punishment. In looking back at the fight, I have serious doubts that Vera would have made it out of the 1st round if the knockout had occurred earlier in the round.

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Andy Lee Makes His Boxing Comeback On July 19th

lee773331.jpgBy Scott Gilfoid: Irish middleweight Andy Lee (15-1, 12 KOs) makes his boxing comeback on July 19th against a still to be determined opponent in Limerick, Ireland. Lee, who turns 24 today, was shockingly stopped in the 7th round in his last fight against Brian Vera (16-1, 10 KOs), a former participant from The Contender reality television series on ESPN. Lee came into the fight a big favorite, with many boxing experts, including Lee’s trainer Emanuel Steward, hyping him and saying that he’s a future champion in the making.

In Steward’s case, he went even one step further, claiming that Lee would be a champion within the year and would defeat middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik to take his title. In hindsight, Steward seemed drunk with glory, thinking way too much of Lee’s easy wins over mostly soft set-up fights which were designed for Lee to look good in. That was supposed to be the case for his fight against Vera, a 26 year-old slugger known for being a heavy pressure fighter with mostly crude skills.

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Andy Lee vs. Vera Rematch In July?

lee57346.jpgBy Eric Thomas: According to the latest boxing news, Irish middleweight prospect Andy Lee (15-1, 12 KOs) may be fighting a rematch with former star from The Contender reality television series Brian Vera (16-1, 10 KOs) in July, as long as Lee’s badly cut up face has been healed by that time. Lee, 23, whom had been highly hyped by many in the boxing world as a potential future champion, suffered a humiliating 7th round TKO loss to Vera on March 21st. Lee had been mentioned previously as a future opponent for middleweight champion Kelly Pavli going into his fight with Vera, and Lee’s television fight against Vera was thought to be a showcase for him to build up more fans.

Lee was expected to walk right through Vera, who was picked because he was a fighter that Lee could possibly look good against because of Vera’s wide open style of fighting. However, as it turns out, Vera was much too strong for Lee and hurt him repeatedly with right hands from the second round on. Lee later said that he hadn’t listed to his trainer Emanuel Steward’s advice to box more in the fight. Instead, Lee got caught up in a brawl with Vera, seemingly fighting his style of fight. I don’t exactly agree with Lee here. I don’t think he was given much choice in the matter, in that Vera forced him to fight that way as he was attacking him continuously, and not letting him box.

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Andy Lee Stopped In 7th By Vera, in Quick Stoppage

lee56757.jpgBy 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.

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Andy Lee vs. Vera This Friday On ESPN

lee56854344.jpgBy 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.

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Who’s Next For Pavlik? Duddy, Lee or Trinidad?

By Dan Ambrose: For WBO/WBC middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik (33-0, 29 KOs), he is suddenly the man that every fighter wants to mix it up with, and after all these years of toling away for next to nothing in monetary gain, Pavlik is looking at big money fights with a variety of fighters, most of which don’t come close to being nearly as good as him. The latest trio – Felix Trinidad, John Duddy and Andy Lee – are whom Pavlik is trying to decide on which will be his next opponent, or should I say ‘victim’ for his fight in June. As of now, the unbeaten John Duddy (23-0, 17 KOs) is the most likely of the three to be the one that Pavlik decides to fight, if only because he’s the more popular fighter on the East Coast.

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The Next Move For Andy Lee

lee46464322.jpgBy 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.

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Lee Destroys Falliga

lee46456565.jpgUndefeated 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.

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Andy Lee: “He can beat Kelly Pavlik right now” – Steward

lee364646.jpgBy 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.

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Lee Destroys Mckay

lee77333.jpgIrish middleweight prospect Andy Lee (14-0, 11 KOs) caused his opponent Jason McKay (18-2, 5 KOs) to quit after the sixth round tonight at the National Stadium, in Dublin, Ireland. Though the fight was considered to be the toughest bout of the 23 year-old Lee’s career, the fight in fact was one of Lee’s easiest, mostly because of his anger at McKay for some comments he had made about Lee during the pre-fight banter.

Instead of firing back with reciprocal backtalk, Lee let his fists do the talking for him, as he systematically destroyed his Irish opponent tonight. From the opening bell, it was apparent that McKay wasn’t in the same class as Lee, as he wasn’t fast enough or powerful enough to match Lee’s offensive arsenal. Lee unleashed several hard right hands in the 2nd round, one of which dropped McKay to the canvas, hurt.

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