By 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.