Steward: ‘We want Andy to fight for the title by March’

LIMERICK pro-boxer Andy Lee could fight for a world middleweight title by next March. That was the promise of his manager Emanuel Steward after the Limerick man brought his career record to 23 wins from 24 bouts on Friday night in Chicago.
The Castleconnell 26-year-old maintained his push for a world title bout after defeating Michael Walker at the UIC Pavilion in Chicago.


The former St. Francis Boxing Club Olympian stopped the hometown fighter after two minutes and three seconds of the eighth round.
While Lee appeared to dominate the early rounds Walker held his ground and could very well have been ahead on points when the referee stopped the fight.
“He might have been outpointing me, but all the while I was hitting him with shots. I knew I’d wear him down in the end,” said Andy Lee after he brought his unbeaten record to eight fights.
“I always felt fully confident from the moment the bout was signed,” said the confident Limerick man.
Manager Emanuel Steward declared himself happy with Lee’s progress after the weekend win: “The other man came to fight. Andy was just a step ahead of him. I was satisfied because I wanted him to get some rounds in. We want Andy to fight for the title by March and he’s right on schedule.”
“Andy is growing in confidence. He fought a very smart and disciplined fight. He demonstrated great maturity in the ring.”
It has also been confirmed that Andy Lee will take on Troy Lowry on October 2.
That bout will take place in the Horseshoe Casino in Indiana - a venue where Lee defeated Anthony Shuler in August 2009.
While all in the Kronk Gym continue to eye a world title fight for Lee a return back to Ireland has not been ruled out for this side of Christmas.
Meanwhile Lee’s former amateur coach Ken Moore of St. Francis was one of the driving forces behind a top class amateur exhibition in the South Court Hotel in Raheen on Friday night between an Irish selection and a Eastern European selection.
Irish Olympian John Joe Joyce was among the star attractions and he didn’t disappoint with a win over Ukrainian light middleweight Oleksander Ivanev.
“I called on all these Irish great boxers and not one lad said no to me and what we got was a top night’s boxing. I would be surprised if there is a better night of boxing in Ireland this year,” said Moore.
“Each one showed their class tonight and I’m very proud to be associated with each of them. The only pity is we only got 300 people, this show deserved 3,000. That’s how good it was,” said Moore.
The night started with two absorbing support bouts.
In a local contest between Limerick’s Derek Duhig (St. Francis) and Ger Griffin (Corpus Christi) the honours went to Griffin.
National champion Jessie Lyons (St. Francis) added to her growing reputation by beating three-time champion Ciara Doyle of Gorey.
The biggest cheer of the night was given to Irish team captain and St. Francis boxer Mark McNamara who was a points winner over Grodamski Tomasz of Poland.

JEROME O’CONNELL