MightyGloves.com

Lee looking to clear final hurdle before Dublin date

posted by mightygloves.com on November 14, 2007, in The Kronk Connection

Photo by Chris McGee

Middleweight sensation Andy Lee has one important piece of business to take care of Stateside tomorrow night before he can turn his attention to next months headline appearance in Dublin.

The unbeaten Limerick man is scheduled to top the bill at the Ladbrokes.com Fight Night at the National Stadium on December 15th but first he needs to get past Marcus Thomas in Plymouth, Michigan on Thursday night.

The two men clash at the Compuware Arena just outside Detroit with Lee looking to stretch his unbeaten professional record to 13 straight wins. Thomas who hails from Barbados has a record of 10 wins and 2 losses.

However despite having another date lined up before Christmas Lee insists that for now he is only focused on this weeks assignment
“Training’s gone very well for this one”, said Lee who made a flying visit home earlier this month to anounce his link up with Brian Peters Promotions.
“The short trip home for the press conference actually helped rather than hindered my preparations because I was probably already in fighting shape and in danger of peaking a little too soon for this one. So the trip home gave me a day off from training and has kept me fresh, ready to go and focused on this fight.”
The 23-year-old southapw says he can still comortably make the 11 stone 6 pound middleweight limit and is ruling out any move up in weight in the short term.
“The middleweight division is always seen as the Blue Riband division because the average man is around the same size as a middleweight so they can relate to them more so than the big heavyweights or the really small guys.
“It’s been the division that people have looked to for excitement ever since the days of Sugar Ray Robinson and Jake La Motta and I still make the limit quite comfortably so moving up in weight is not really something I've thought about to be honest.
“In Irish boxing the middleweight division is very hot right now and there are some great fighters coming through and who knows maybe we’ll all pair off somewhere down the line but the world picture is also very exciting at the moment.”
Lee believes that all going well he should be in a position to challenge the big guns in the division early in 2009. “By the end of next year I hope to be in a position to fight for a title but at the moment I’m just concentrating on getting into that position.

“I know are lot of people are talking very highly of me but I don’t really buy in to that because I no amount of talk will win me a world title – I’ll have to prove that I’m good enough to do that in the ring.”
Lee's scheduled outing at the National Stadium next month will be his first as a headline act and it's something he's relishing.
“Obviously I have to get Friday night out of the way first and I can't afford to look past that but headlining my own show at the Stadium will be fantastic. I must admit I was slightly envious of Bernard Dunne and John Duddy headlining there so it will be great to get a chance to do it myself now.
“I got a taste of it when I fought at the Point in August and the reception I got was unbelievable so hopefully next month will be even better.”
In his August appearance Lee forced Belfast hard man Ciaran Healy to retire on his stool after 4 rounds but he's hoping for an even better display next month.
“As an exercise in coming home it was great to fight in front of an Irish audience but Ciaran Healy was an awkward opponent and a tough guy but with the greatest respect to him he came to survive. It was hard to impress against him but I got the job done and I suppose that was the main objective. Hopefully as I step up in class the opponents will be a little more ambitous and willing to take more chances and that should give me the oppurtunity to shine a little more.”
One of Lee's Irish midleweight rivals, Jason McKay will also be out to impress on the December 14th card. The Banbridge native has an impressive 18 wins from his 19 professional outings and is knocking on the door for a title shot.
An Irish title fight on the undercard will see Eugene Heagney and Colin Moffett clash for the Irish super bantamweight title in a rematch of a thrilling contest at the National Stadium in July. Heagney came out on top in that one taking a narrow points win but with the Irish title on the line Moffett will be even more fired up for the return.

The card also features prospects, John O'Donnell, Eddie Hyland, Declan Timlin, Michael Sweeney, Lukasz Wawrzyczek and Paul Truscott.

Tickets for the Ladrokes.com Fight Night priced from €40 are on sale now from Ticketmaster.ie and all usual outlets

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