Lee scores knock-out

Boxing Middleweight bout: Limerick middleweight Andy Lee posted his 13th win in as many professional outings on Thursday night with an impressive, first-round knock-out of two-time Caribbean champion Marcus Thomas at the Compuware Arena outside Detroit.

It was the fifth occasion - and the second in a row - that Lee has kept the round-card girls out of the ring by dispatching an opponent in the first three minutes.

Lee's Hall of Fame trainer and manager Emanuel Steward prefers each outing to be a learning experience for his 23-year-old prodigy, and the raison d'etre for the selection of Thomas was apparent once the boxers entered the ring. Lee is a tall middleweight, but for once he was fighting somebody his size.

Like Lee, Thomas is listed at 6ft 2in, but with his dreadlocks gathered into a topknot piled above his head, he looked to be the size of Lennox Lewis.

"Facing a tall guy was good practice for me," said Lee. "The champion, Kelly Pavlik, is also a tall fellow, so it's a good fight to prepare me for what might happen down the line."

Thursday night's fight was scheduled for 10 rounds, and, said Lee: "I was thinking 10 rounds in my head, but once I hit him hard he didn't want to know, and I told myself 'Ah, just get it out of the way'."

Lee wasted little time in chopping down the overmatched opponent from Barbados, putting his foe on the floor a minute into the bout. Thomas got up from that one, but moments later Lee manoeuvred him into a corner, where he caught him with a left uppercut, intending to follow with a hook.

"But I never got to throw the hook," said Lee.

The instant Lee brandished the right, Thomas swerved to turn his body away from the punch, and in doing so literally threw himself into the path of a hard left Steward recalled as "a vicious body shot".

"It was like double impact when I caught him moving into the body shot," said Lee.

Thomas pitched face-forward into the canvas, and referee Ansel Stewart abandoned his count when it became clear Thomas wasn't going to get up any time soon. The official time was 1:13 of the first.

The bout figures to be Lee's last on American soil until next spring. He is already scheduled to fight for Brian Peters in a main event at the National Stadium on December 15th, with American veteran Corey Johnson the likely opponent.

"From what I understand, Corey has already agreed to the fight," said Lee. "He has a record of 34-4, and he's been around. He fought Kostya Tszyu for the world title several years ago. I've met him a few times in the gyms around Detroit, and we've actually been friendly."

Johnson won't be a total stranger to Dublin. A decade ago he battled then-undefeated Aussie Shannan Taylor to a 10-round draw in the principal supporting bout on the Wayne McCullough-Jose Luis Bueno card at The Point.

Lee's recently concluded agreement with Peters calls for several fights in Ireland over the next couple of years, and the next could be a February bout in his home town of Limerick.

Then, in March, the Mohegan Sun Casino in Connecticut wants Lee and another undefeated Irish middleweight, Arklow's James Moore, to share the bill on a pre-St Patrick's Day card.

Although Lee was disappointed by Jermain Taylor's loss to Pavlik in their September title fight, the misfortune of his erstwhile stablemate could create opportunities for him. The February 16th Pavlik-Taylor rematch is scheduled to be contested at 166lb, and should Pavlik prevail it seems likely he might go straight after Joe Calzaghe without defending the middleweight title.

"And if they move up, the field is wide open," said Lee. "There are some other guys, like Giovanni Lorenzo and John Duddy, who are in a better position than I am right now, but if I can get into a good position when Kelly vacates, I could be fighting for a world title by this time next year."

Lee plans to fly to Belfast to take in Duddy's fight against Howard Eastman at the King's Hall on December 6th, and then remain in Belfast for a few days' sparring before the Dublin bout the following Saturday.