Comeback not enough as Lee loses to Cuban

ANDY LEE suffered his first defeat since the Athens Olympics when he went under 16-12 to Yordanis Despagne Herrera from Cuba, in a thrilling middleweight contest in Liverpool last night when the Four Nations played host to the amateur boxing world superpower.

Lee, who is still a long way short of his best with just a handful of contests under his belt since Athens last year, failed to register a single point on the computer in the third round.

He came back to win the fourth 5-3 but it was not enough.

The Cuban, who has two world championship bronze medals, led all the way, 3-2 after the first round, 9-7 after the second and 13-7 at the end of the third.

But Lee battled his way back into the contest, losing by just four points in a thrilling finish.

“This was an outstanding performance from Andy,” IABA president, Dominic O’Rourke said.

“The fact that the computer failed to register a point in his favour in the third round proved decisive but you have to hand it to Andy, he got better and better as the contest progressed,” he added.

On a night when the Cubans were superb, claiming scalp after scalp, young Karl Brabazon produced what was the performance of the night from the Four Nations boxers, going under to Jorge Herrera Daniel 28-18 in the welterweight contest.

The Cubans appeared a little jet-lagged in the earlier contests but Daniel was on his toes throughout his bout.

He took a narrow 4-3 lead in the first round but stormed ahead, scoring with combinations and perfectly placed single shots, to win the second round 11-1.

It appeared to be all over for Brabazon at that point but the young Dubliner came back strongly in the fourth round, caught the Cuban with every punch in the book and won the round 6-4.

Ken Egan lost his heavyweight contest to Ismaliakel Perez, 35-18.