Andy Lee turns eyes towards Thomond title thriller

Andy Lee has targeted a summer bout at Thomond Park after Saturday night’s split decision draw against Peter Quillin in Brooklyn.

The WBO middleweight champion didn’t have his title on the line after Quillin’s dramatic failure to make weight on Friday but the pair still managed to put on a good show for more than 12,000 fight fans at the Barclays Center — home of the Brooklyn Nets NBA team.

While it may or may not be possible to bring Quillin to Ireland, both boxers are keen to set up a rematch after a 12-rounder which swung back and forth after Lee was knocked down twice early on.

The Adam Booth-trained Limerick man rallied brilliantly in the middle and late rounds having been caught superbly by his Michigan-native opponent in the first and third while also shipping another big hit that arrived a split second after the bell.

“I’m a little sore but no major damage done,” Lee said after the fight. “It looks worse than it is. It was a tough fight but I’m happy to be out of it healthy.

“I don’t know how to feel about it. It was weird as it wasn’t even a championship fight but both of us enhanced our reputations and that’s what was on the line.

“We both come out looking better because he showed his class and I showed my resilience and eventually my boxing. I think it was a fair result. He scored good knockdowns in the first few rounds and I boxed my way back into it. I was stronger and more consistent going down the stretch and that’s all important in those championship 12 rounds. He got the knockdown so that kind of skews your judgment in his favour. You’re kind of looking at him to do stuff. I got the one back and for his last knockdown he stood on my toe. The referee acknowledged that at the end of the fight and said ‘Sorry, I realise now that was a mistake’.”

Quillin, who is undefeated, had never been knocked down in his career until Lee stunned him in the seventh at the height of a controlled sequence of rounds which saw the champion reassert control of the contest.

And when one of the judges, Glenn Feldman, determined that the official ruling for the third round knockout was actually more of a trip, the one-point swing in Lee’s favour ultimately ensured a draw, with the arena expressing some surprise at the split decision (113-112 for Lee, 113-112 for Quillin and 113-113 with Feldman).

“When you’re in the fight, it’s hectic and decisions are made in a split second,” Lee said of the trip. “It was a fair result, in the end. We’re both counter punchers ultimately. We’re also both very big punchers — you saw there were knockdowns for both of us. We had to be careful. He made a mistake and I made him pay. I made several mistakes and he caught me.

“It might not have been great for the crowd watching but we’re in the ring and it’s dangerous. The rounds went by so fast, it was round 10 before I realised and I said to Adam should I go all out and get this guy, just let it all hang out and get him out of there? But he said ‘no you’re in the fight, keep boxing because it’s late. You’re in a good place’. I never thought I was going to lose.

“I would be (interested in a rematch),” Lee added. “If I don’t make those mistakes that I did earlier in the fight, then it’s a different outcome. We’ll see what happens.

“I’m not going to fight again until August. August at Thomond Park would be nice.”