BOXING: Limerick middleweight Andy Lee will be looking for his sixth professional win in as many outings in his match-up against Bayonne (New Jersey) veteran Dennis Sharpe on the undercard of tonight's Wladimir Klitschko-Calvin Brock heavyweight championship fight at Madison Square Garden.

"Almost as soon as the opponent was confirmed we started looking at his previous fights," said Lee, who studied tape of Sharpe's 2004 win over Ronald Boddie in preparation for tonight's bout. "He's a real fighter, no pushover, and he'll be in there trying to win just like I will."

Sharpe's 17-2-3 professional record probably seems more impressive than it is: having been stopped by Pawel Lowak and Giovanni Lorenzo in his last two outings (and having drawn with Horace Cooper and Patrick Thompson before that), he hasn't won since May of 2004 and should be ripe for the taking by the 2002 Irish Olympian.

Lee, moreover, will be just the second southpaw Sharpe has faced in the ring. The other, Randy Pogue, lost on a split decision five years ago in Atlantic City.

The Lee-Sharpe six-round prelim is slated to be the second fight on tonight's eight-bout card, and will go into the ring several hours before the featured attractions - Klitschko-Brock, and Muhammad Ali's daughter Laila v Montana's Shelley Burton.

"I know I'll be on early, before much of the crowd even arrives, but it's a big thrill to be fighting at Madison Square Garden," said Lee.

"Perhaps some day it will be me fighting in a main event there."

Lee, who is trained and managed by Klitschko's conditioner, Emanuel Steward, boxes out of Detroit's famed Kronk Gym, but spent the past month training at the Ukrainian's training camp in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania, where he even ventured into the ring with the heavyweight champion.

"As a boxer, Andy is very intelligent," said Klitschko. "As a person, he is also very intelligent. As an Irishman, he is, well, very funny."