Lee gunning for his 15th victory

Boxing News: Since tonight's fight card at the University Sports Arena will be Limerick's first ever professional boxing event, yesterday's exercise at the George Boutique Hotel by definition constituted the city's first ever weigh-in, which might explain the comportment of Limerick Councillor (and Deputy Mayor) Cathleen Leddin.

Andy Lee, who had just been announced, was intercepted before he could even get to the scale by Cllr Leddin, who, apparently oblivious to the proceedings, introduced herself to the baffled Limerick middleweight as a "long-time supporter".

Lee, once he had diplomatically extricated himself, scaled in at 159½lb (11st 5lb 8oz) for tonight's bout against Alejandro Gustavo Falliga, while his Argentinian foe weighed a quarter-pound less.

Belfast light welterweight Paul McCloskey, who will face Mexican Manuel Garnica in the co-featured bout on tonight's telecast (RTÉ 2), weighed 142½lb (10st 2 lb 5oz), as did Garnica.

Lee, who in his last fight in December stopped Jason McKay in six rounds at the National Stadium to win the Irish super-middleweight title, will be fighting before his hometown fans for the first time as a professional.

The 23-year-old Lee will be gunning for his 15th win in as many bouts under the tutelage of his Hall of Fame trainer Emanuel Steward.

Steward interrupted his duties at the training camp of heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko and flew to Ireland to join Lee yesterday.

Lee, who turned professional after representing Ireland in the 2004 Athens Olympics, is already rated number 14 in the world by the International Boxing Federation, and, assuming he gets by Falliga, is scheduled to perform in his first nationally-televised US main event next month.

Pending the result of his outing against Falliga, Lee is scheduled to face Texan Brian Vera, a former Contender participant, atop an ESPN2 card at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Connecticut on March 21st.

Falliga is 14-3-2, and his last outing in December dropped a majority decision to his compatriot Luciano Cuello in Buenos Aires, despite putting the 20-0 Cuello on the floor twice in the first three rounds.

"I've watched a film of that one, and he was a bit unlucky not to win it," said Lee.

McCloskey, who stopped Bulgarian veteran Tontcho Tontchev to win the IBF International belt on December's John Duddy-Howard Eastman card in Belfast, will be in with another experienced veteran in the 33-year-old Mexican.

Garnica (21-8) owns wins over former world champions Carlos Maussa and Gabriel Ruelas, and less than two years ago dropped a controversial split decision to highly rated Juan Lazcano.

Lee's last two Irish victims, McKay and Belfast middleweight Ciarán Healy, will both appear in supporting roles on the Limerick card, with each facing undistinguished Latvian opposition.

The Ballinrobe cruiserweight Michael Sweeney, who accompanied Lee to Detroit to train at Steward's Kronk Gym last month, will meet Lithuanian Remigijus Ziausys, and former Cuban international Mike Perez, who recently relocated to Cork, will box the Hungarian Sandor Balogh in a heavyweight four-rounder.

British middleweight Michael Macklin was also scheduled to perform tonight, but his bout against Christophe Karagoz had to be cancelled when the Frenchman was faced with a family emergency on Thursday night, and no suitable replacement could be found.

Although the Lee-Falliga tickets had sold out within hours when they were put on scale two weeks ago, promoter Brian Peters said that a block of 150 tickets previously reserved for a group of Macklin supporters travelling from Birmingham would be made available through TicketMaster today.