Andy Lee wins comeback fight in solid fashion, boxing for the first time in nearly 16 months.
Andy Lee wins and gets rid of the Billy Joe Saunders defeat memory of December 2015.
The Irishman’s comeback went under the radar a bit tonight and he knew it was make or break tonight against Alabama fighter KeAndrae Leatherwood.
The first round started off cautiously as both men pawed with the jab early on. They felt each other out and looked to ease into the fight.
Round 2 was similar to the first, in that both men were hesitant to commit to any full blooded attacks. The punch of the round came from Lee at the end of the three minutes with a nice straight left hand from his southpaw stance.
Leatherwood was the man on the front foot for a change in round 3 – landing some decent straight right hands.
Andy Lee controlled distance and displayed solid ring control in round 4 behind his long right jab. Not much action but a Lee round I thought for ring generalship.
The Lee jab proved difficult for Leatherwood to get inside of again in the fifth round.
Andy Lee started putting his punches together more in round 6 and started to double up on the jab. He was looking to try to land big left hand single shots at times.
The Lee jab dictated a lot of the action in round 7 again. On the front foot, the Irishman looked confident that he had the decision in the bag by this point.
‘Irish’ Andy Lee closed out the fight with a workman like 8th and final round to win the bout on unanimous decision in the end at Madison Square Garden.
He added another Irish sporting victory to the 2017 St.Patrick’s Day weekend and improved his professional boxing record to 34-3-1-24KO.
No doubt Lee will have shook off a lot of ring rust tonight in his first fight in some time, as he looks to get back into the mix at the top of the middleweight division.
