BOXING:Promoter Brian Peters and middleweight Andy Lee have come to eachother's rescue after both suffered unforeseen disappointments in the last week.
Peters, whose Hunky Dorys world title fight night at The O2, saw Ireland’s Olympic silver medallist Ken Egan drop from the Bernard Dunne undercard, has more than filled the hole by securing the services of Lee after the Limerick man’s bout at Madison Square Garden, scheduled for March 16th, fell through.
Lee was due to top the bill in New York when facing 37-year-old Antwun Echolls but will be back in Dublin by March 21st to take on an as yet unnamed opponent before Dunne vies for Ricardo Cordoba's super bantamweight title.
Everyone, therefore, seems happy. Lee’s training and preparation doesn’t go to waste and Peters has got a bigger draw on the undercard than he had in the amateur Egan.
"After weeks of training, preparation and build up, to be told that it was all for nothing was a big let down. For me personally it was an opportunity to initiate and take forward my plans for 2009,” said Lee today.
“I was physically and mentally prepared for the fight and it would have been the perfect comeback fight after my recent lay-off."
Lee, whose bout in Dublin will be exactly a year to the day after the defeat to Brian Vera that threatened to derail his ambitions last year, thanked Peters for ‘saving the day’.
“To be fighting on the undercard to Bernard Dunne in his quest to win a world title in Dublin is a great honour for me.”
Lee is returning from a long lay-off after having surgery to repair a cut to his eye sustained in his comeback win over Willie Gibbs in Limerick last July.
"My plans for the rest of 2009 is to advance my career with developmental fights taking me to the next level of being in the top 10 of the world ratings. Although my career is based in America, I relish the opportunity of fighting at home. But it's fight one fight at a time and my focus is now firmly on March 21st."
Lee's trainer Emanuel Steward added: "The disappointment of the March 16th fight in New York soon evaporated when my good friend Brian Peters came into the picture.
“Brian is a very pragmatic guy always thinking on his feet. To put Andy on the card on this momentous night for Irish boxing was a wonderful gesture.”