No Argy Bargy for Lee

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Irish Voice Sport

No Argy Bargy for Lee

February 6, 2008

By Declan O’Kelly

ANDY Lee rattled Alejandro Gustavo Falliga and claimed his 15th professional win in impressive style in his native Limerick on Saturday night.

The 23-year-old completely dismantled his opponent and gave the Shannonside crowd the homecoming win they craved when the referee stopped the contest in the fifth round.

No pipers or “Limerick You’re a Lady” rang over the sound system as Lee and his entourage entered the ring to hip-hop and huge roars from the capacity crowd at the University Arena.

Awaiting him was the 25-year old Argentinean, who seemed none too overawed and ready for business. He traded with Lee at the start, but after feeling the Irishman’s power in the first stanza Falliga spent the remainder of the fight dancing around the ring to avoid the Detroit-based Castleconnell man.

The Buenos Aries native’s reluctance to engage was never more evident than in the second round, when an ill-advised but insignificant tap by Lee to the back of Falliga’s head caused him to fall theatrically and roll around. Lee was left shocked by the fall and walked away shaking his head – he was fortunate not to have a point deducted – but he also knew Falliga was looking for a way out, and there was only one winner after that.

In the third round, Lee began to dominate with good powerful shots to the head and one tremendous body blow. Lee began to taunt his opponent, who was now stepping on the gas and running out of trouble.

A clash of heads opened a cut on Lee’s right eyelid, and he also picked up a nick on his left eye. Lee’s only fault was not to cut off the ring more, but he still was well in the ascendancy, mainly because he was the only one interested in actually boxing. Trainer and manager Emanuel Steward told Lee so at the end of the fourth act, saying he was “giving a little too much space.”

Lee certainly heeded his mentor in the fifth and started aggressively. After a few setup right jabs, Lee cornered Falliga and floored him with a heavy-duty straight left.

Falliga never recovered his legs, and two further knockdowns from minimal power punches convinced referee Emile Tiedt to stop proceedings.

“I knew how he was going to box, but to be honest he was very negative. He really was in survival mode, and it’s hard to box well when someone is boxing like that,” said Lee afterwards.

“I took my time, but then I got cut, and that upset me a bit. But I reset, took my time, and kept walking him down as I knew I would catch him.”

Lee is scheduled to fight again on February 29 in Michigan, and then on March 21 he will be the main event on ESPN’s Friday Nights Fights at the Mohegan Sun Casino in Connecticut.

This will be Lee’s first chance to show a national televised audience why he is so highly regarded. His opponent will be Brian Vera (15-1), a Texan whose only loss was a second round knockout to Jaidon Codrington in season three of The Contender.

While reiterating that Lee would be world champion by the end of 2008, Steward revealed what he had in the works to see his fighter attain that goal. “Right now there is a fight scheduled for June 7 between Kelly Pavlik and Irish John Duddy, tentatively. I am negotiating a deal right now with Bob Arum for the winner of the fight between John Duddy and Kelly Pavlik to fight Andy Lee,” Steward.

Shouldn’t Duddy’s manager Eddie McLoughlin need to be involved in this process in some form? When the Irish Ropes president was asked about Steward’s comment he said he was none the wiser. ”We have heard absolutely nothing about that,” McLoughlin told the Irish Voice Monday.

On the undercard of the Lee fight, Paul McCloskey was in complete control of his light welterweight fight against Mexican Manuel Garnica (21-9), who beat former world champions Carlos Maussa and Gabriel Ruelas during his career.

The Derry native put on a slick exhibition of punching and weaving and was able to slide and move away from punches using lightning reflexes. McCloskey now moves to 15-0 and could challenge for the European title after a few more fights around Ireland.

It was a mixed night for former Lee opponents, with Jason McKay (19-2) beating Martin Kukuls (3-16) on points while Ciaran Healy (7-7-1) suffered an upset points loss to Latvia Pavel Lota (1-3). Middleweight Matthew Macklin’s opponent Christophe Karagoz had to pull out of their fight due to a family emergency.

Speaking of Duddy, the Derry native has added some seriously experienced sparring partners to his team in New Bern, North Carolina — Antwun Echols and Ross Thompson. Echols fought Bernard Hopkins two times and Thompson has been in with Fernando Vargas and went the distance with Kelly Pavlik in November 2004.

In other news, Celtic Gloves Promotions, who promote and manage light middleweight James Moore, are in negotiations with Madison Square Garden to host a night of boxing at the WaMu Theater on March 15.

Maintaining the St. Patrick’s Day weekend boxing tradition started by Irish Ropes in recent years, Celtic Gloves hope for Moore to headline a card featuring, among others, Polish New York fighter Pawel Wolak.

“Mike (O’Sullivan, Celtic Gloves owner) is in negotiations with MSG, hopefully we will be able to fill it, though there will be a lot of work to needed to be done over the next five weeks,” said Barney Moore of Celtic Gloves.

The 15-0 Moore began his work by heading to camp in the Poconos with Harry Keitt and will be training with welterweight Dmitriy Salita (27-0).

Meanwhile, Chicago-based Mayo native Henry Coyle got 2008 off to a good start by beating Chris Cook (3-11-1) by TKO in the third round of a scheduled six in Charleston, South Carolina on Thursday night.

“He was a lot tougher and dangerous that his record would suggest. He was fairly dirty, using his head and shoulder a lot,” the light middleweight, now 5-1, told the Irish Voice. “I had him down in the second with a body shot and went to the head with a right hook in the third and the ref stopped it.”

Coyle has been sparring with Carlos Molina and Freddy Cuevas in Chicago and was happy to have a fight that went past the first round as a pro. Working with trainer Bernard O’Shea, Coyle also has Sam Colonna and Joey DeGrandis in his corner. Next up for the Western Warrior is a possible bout in Indiana later this month.

Finally, light heavyweight Alo Kelly has had to retire from professional boxing due to a detached retina in his right eye. He had an operation a few weeks ago, and while he should never box again, the good news is that some sight has returned to the eye.

The injury was discovered while Kelly was training in Belfast in January. “It‘s very sad. Alo was our first-born, so to speak, and Irish Ropes was built around him,” said McLoughlin. Kelly, went 5-0-1 as a pro.

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