Andy Lee (boxer)

Andy Lee
Andy Lee
Data
Birth Name	Andy Lee
Weight class	medium weight
nationality	Irish
birthday	June 11, 1984
place of birth	London
style	Legal display
size	1.88 m
Combat Statistics
Struggles	39
Victories	35
Knockout victories	24
Defeats	3
draw	1

Andy Lee (born June 11, 1984 in London ) is an Irish professional boxer and former world champion of the WBO middleweight division.

Amateur career

As a junior, he started in the light middleweight division and took part in the 17th European Junior Championships in Sarajevo in 2001, where he was defeated in the first fight against EU champion Sedat Üstüner from Turkey. But already at the 12th Junior World Championships in Santiago de Cuba in 2002 he defeated Ondrej Molnár from Slovakia (3rd place in the Cadet EM 1999), Marco Peribán from Mexico (3rd place in the Pan American Championship in 2005), Ismail Sillach from the Ukraine ( Cadet World Champion 2001) and US champion Jesús González before he lost to the Cuban Noelvis Veitia in the final and thus got out with the silver medal. He then boxed in the middleweight division.

In the elite class (adults) he was Irish champion in 2003, 2004 and 2005, where he also defeated Darren Sutherland and Eamon O'Kane . In April 2003 he won silver at the Finnish 22nd Gee-Bee tournament in Helsinki , after failing in the final against the later Olympic champion Gaidarbek Gaidarbekow from Russia. At the 12th World Championships in Bangkok in 2003, however, he was eliminated in the round of 16 against the later gold medalist Gennady Golovkin .

In February 2004 he won a bronze medal at the 35th European Championships in Pula ; he defeated it David Tsiklauri from Georgia, Darren Barker from England and Nikola Sjekloća from Montenegro, but lost in the semifinals against the German Lukas Wilaschek . A second place followed in June at the 2nd EU Championships in Madrid . In the final he had to admit defeat to the two-time Olympic medalist and world champion Marian Simion from Romania.

In August 2004 he took part in the 28th Summer Olympics in Athens , where he won in the preliminary round against Alfredo Angulo from Mexico (38:23), but in the round of 16 with a 27: 27+ auxiliary point rating against Hassan N'Dam N 'Jikam from Cameroon lost.

Professional career

Andy Lee switched to the professional camp in 2006 and was trained by Emanuel Steward . At the beginning of his career he beat a number of opponents like Dennis Sharpe (17-2), Arturo Ortega (12-2), ex- WBA world champion Carl Daniels (49-10) and Thomas Hengstberger (12-4). On December 15, 2007 he won against Jason McKay (18-1) (abandonment of McKay after the sixth round) the Irish championship super middleweight.

In March 2008 he lost controversially through tKo against Brian Vera (15-1) after the referee had stopped the fight in the seventh round due to a series of blows against Lee. Up to this point, Lee had been in the lead with all three judges and had knocked Vera to the ground in the first round. In his next fight he beat Willie Gibbs (20-3) early in the tenth round. In May 2010 he defeated former European champion Mamadou Thiam (46-8) in the second round and in March 2011 the undefeated Briton Craig McEwan (19-0) in round ten.

On May 18, 2011, he boxed for the North American championship titles of the NABF and NABA in the middleweight division; he defeated it Alex Bunema (31-7) unanimously on points. In October 2011 he also beat Brian Vera in a rematch.

On June 16, 2012, he appeared in El Paso , Texas, to fight for the WBC world middleweight title against Julio César Chavez junior (45-0). The Mexican was ranked third in the world by Ring Magazine and has now defended his title for the third time. Lee lost the fight despite a good performance and points lead in the seventh round by the referee dropping out after receiving a series of blows. The fight was rated as a tKo defeat.

In June 2014 he defeated John Jackson (18-1) by knockout and was thereby North America champion of the NABF in the light middleweight division. In December 2014 he was with a tKo victory in the sixth round against Matwei Korobow (24-0), WBO world middleweight champion. He is the first Irish world champion in this weight class since 1994, when Steve Collins won the WBO title against Chris Pyatt . He is also the first Irishman to win the title in the USA.

In April 2015 he boxed a draw against Peter Quillin (31-0).

On December 19, 2015 he lost the world title in Manchester by narrowly defeating Billy Saunders (22-0).

predecessor	Office	successor
Peter Quillin	Middleweight Boxing Champion ( WBO ) December 13, 2014 - December 19, 2015	Billy Joe Saunders

Web links

• Andy Lee at BoxRec
• Irish in Athens