Bob Arum and Emmanuel Steward had a verbal agreement to sign Andy Lee with Top Rank. The deal included provisions for young Andy to appear on two Pavlik undercards, and get a title shot if he continued to win. Now it looks like the deal is off. Here's the link to the story. http://www.independent.ie/sport/other-sports/blow-for-lee-as-1m-deal-collapses-1327398.html Boo
Good move by Top Rank, and let that be a lesson to all these upcoming fighters.. EARN YOU WAY!!!!!!!!!
For once I agree with Steward. I had Lee in a dominant lead up until the stoppage, and I also feel the stoppage was premature. All credit goes to Andy Lee who took the referee's decision like a man. I hope he comes back. :good
That stoppage wasn't premature it was late. Andy Lee was not going to win that fight, he wasn't hurting Vera and was getting rocked with every hit,
this further confirms the theory that handpicked opponents will get some fighters paid more than taking on tough challenges. except that in Lee's case the handpicked opponent tuned out to be a tough challenge. Next time they will just handpick someone even worse.
I had it 57-56 going into the 7th, but only because of the 10-8 first round. From the beginning of the 4th round on the only way Lee stopped a right hand was with his face. Boo
So true he was winning big had knocked Vera down and the ref did not warn him and he threw a punch to end the fight! Of course this newpaper story is not true here is the yahoo news on it: http://news.search.yahoo.com/search/news;_ylt=A0WTTknG2OpHI.IAlgLQtDMD;_ylu=X3oDMTA4Mm84YjJyBHNlYwNzb3J0?ei=UTF-8&p=andy+lee+top+rank&datesort=1&fr=hp-psnb