Lee ready to take on the world
The Limerick man’s trainer had earlier watched his charge claim the vacant Irish super middleweight championship belt with an awesome punching display at the National Stadium on Saturday night.
His unfortunate opponent, Jason McKay from Craigavon was bloodied and bruised and nursing an injury to his right shoulder when he quit after six action-packed rounds, his trainer John Breen telling referee Emiel Teidt his man would not be contesting the seventh round.
The war of words in the days leading up to the bout when the McKay camp questioned Lee’s heart took on a new dimension when McKay thumped his heart during the National Anthem and then each time Lee landed a big bomb he thumped his heart.
“That’s the worst insult you can throw at a boxer,” Lee said. “But it is all over now. It is forgotten about.”
Lee landed some big shots — powerful, accurate right hand jabs that were punctuated with thundering left hooks to the head and body — and although most were absorbed defiantly by McKay, he was on the floor from a big overhand right in the second round.
It was in that round that the damage was done. An accidental clash of heads resulted in a cut over Lee’s right eye that required three stitches and a cut on McKay’s forehead that needed two and left a lot of blood on the canvas.
“When we got the cuts I was afraid they would stop the fight,” Lee said. “That was the worst thing that could have happened. It was an accidental clash of heads.”
Lee’s punches grew in intensity and it was not until the fifth that he eased his foot off the pedal, allowing McKay back into the fight. But the tide turned when McKay injured his right shoulder in that round: “I am not putting that forward as an excuse,” he said. “A special fighter beat me tonight. He was the better man and fair play to him. I have no complaints. I tried my best.
“He is a class boxer, he is talented, fast and doesn’t miss many. I knew he was good. Of all Irish middleweights, Andy is the one I didn’t want.
“I got a lot of publicity out of this fight — people know who Jason McKay is now. They know I am tough. I don’t lie down. I come to fight.”
“Jason fought a good fight tonight and he fought the best middleweight in the world,” Emanuel Steward insisted. “I’ve seen Jermain Taylor and all the other middleweights and Andy is right in there with them.”
He said Lee is just about ready for a world title fight and predicted he will fight for a world title four fights from now, pointing out that most of their fighters win championships after 16 or 20 fights. Because of their amateur backgrounds they have a lot of experience. Michael Moore at just 13 fights was a world champion.
“As regards a world title fight you look at who is the champion,” he said. “Kelly Pavlik is a pretty basic fighter. He just knocks guys out in seventh or eight rounds when they are tired. Great punchers like Tyson, Tommy Hearns, they knocked people out early. They were punchers. Jermain Taylor just ran out of gas and got tired.
“Andy Lee has too much experience for Pavlik. I know some people don’t believe that. But he comes from a great amateur background. Tonight he had too much experience for Jason. Although Jason had more fights, you could see Andy had too much experience because he has the experience of travelling and boxing in all those gyms — the sparring partners we employ for him are undefeated 23/24-year-old light heavyweights in America. We pay them a lot of dollars.”
Lee said he has wanted Pavlik since he saw him knock out Taylor. “Manny (Steward) was there broadcasting and I was at home in Detroit watching it and I rang him and said ‘Manny please book me a fight with that fellow.’ He is just a very stand-up-tall fighter — nothing flashy and no slick boxing.
“When you see those guys on television you put them up on a pedestal but when you see them in the flesh you know they are just ordinary boxers. They go through what every other boxer goes through — and like everybody else they are there to be beaten.”
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
