Andy Lee’s long and winding road to the top of the boxing world

Andy Lee and Adam Booth were in New York with Cork-Cuban heavyweight Mike Perez last July, but if feels much longer now, writes John Riordan.

That proved to be a far less fruitful crusade than the one which will culminate later today in Limerick, when Lee drapes the WBO Middleweight belt over his shoulder for a deserved champion’s homecoming.

Booth was in Perez’s corner that night at Madison Square Garden, having prepared the big man for a make-or-break bout with Philadelphia’s Bryant Jennings.