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Jumping Off The Andy
Lee Bandwagon
For The Record, We Were
Never On Board
By William Trillo Photo Folly: Bret "The Threat" Newton
Over the last few months the highly touted and undefeated middleweight prospect Andy Lee was considered by many so called experts the next big thing at 160 pounds, and after his recent signing by Top Rank he was thought to be the heir apparent to Kelly Pavlik when he abdicated his throne....think again.
On the Main Event on ESPN 2 Friday
night, Lee was set against the "made to order" opponent and
once defeated Brain Vera. If that order was to serve up
Lee's face as Hamburger with a side order of Humble Pie,
well the mission was accomplished. The free swinging and
tough whiskered Vera handed Lee his first defeat with a
stunning 7th round TKO leaving all those who climbed aboard
the bandwagon diving off at a rapid clip.
Along with many in the media who had not
yet seen Lee in live action I made sure to be in front of
the tube to watch and see what everyone was raving about.
Personally, I had not had the chance to check out the lad
from Ireland and I wanted to see for myself. I hadn't made
judgement one way or the other on Emanuel Stewards latest
project and this was going to be my chance to get a feel for
what he was all about.
I wasn't impressed.
Even in the first round when Lee put
Vera on the canvas I saw a very flawed fighter. Standing
straight up with little or no head movement I watched
southpaw Lee throw a second rate jab followed with some very
hard left hands. Nice counter puncher who threw hard up the
middle, but that was about it. The when he put Vera down I
thought, well he does have one heck of a punch, but could he
finish? The answer was no as Vera got to his feet and was
standing when the bell rang.
Vera stormed back and hurt Lee for the
first time in round two and from that point on the "made to
order challenger" would not back up and he systematically
broke Lee down.
Over the next few rounds Lee apparently
did not have a Plan B as he employed the same methodical
straight up style. By the mid rounds Lee was cut and he was
running out of gas quickly.
Round 6 was the beginning of the end for
Lee as Vera's right hand found it's mark time and time
again. Yet, at the conclusion of the round ESPN chose to
show only clips of Lee's left hand landing and while
choosing to ignore the damage Vera was doing. Apparently
they thought they were still running the Sugar Coated
vignette they ran about Lee at the start of the show.
Round 7 was a massacre as Vera pummeled
Lee until the ref mercifully stopped it at the 2:17 mark.
Some will say it was premature, but make no doubt about
it, Lee was getting his lunch served to him by Vera.
I am never one to second guess Emanuel
Steward, and if he says Lee is something special, who am I
to argue? But I can say this, Manny has his work cut out for
himself.
Was it a good fight? Yeah. It was pretty
entertaining and Lee did have his moments.
But is he the "Second Coming."
Apparently he is.
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