Ahead on all three cards after six rounds, Andy Lee saw his bid for Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.’s world middleweight title ended by a TKO at 2:21 minutes of the seventh stanza at the outdoor Sun Bowl arena in El Paso last Saturday night.
American referee Laurence Cole stopped the scheduled 12-rounder under the dark Texas sky with Lee being pummeled by the undefeated Chavez, but still on his feet.
It was the culmination of some steady pressure from the Mexican-born World Boxing Council [WBC] titlist who’d been outworked early as Lee, a 3-1 underdog, initially raised hopes of an upset.
In the end it played out like Lee’s only other defeat – against Brian Vera four years ago – with the Limerick southpaw out boxing his man in the opening rounds and then succumbing in a slugfest.
“I got no excuses,” a crestfallen Lee said during the post-fight interview on HBO. “He’s a good fighter. My punches had no effect on him, I couldn’t hold him off.”
Giving a frightening assessment of Chavez’ strength, Lee added: “A lot of punches I threw [that] could have hurt a lot of people, he just walked through them.”
Still, at the time of the stoppage, all three judges: Filipino Rey Danseco, Texan Jesse Reyes and England’s John Keane had Lee ahead on points 58-56.
The challenger, who’d turned 28 five days earlier, saw his record drop to 28-2 [20 KOs]. Chavez, two years younger, upped his unbeaten ledger to 46-0-1 with his 32nd stoppage.
He also added Lee to his list of Irish conquests after points decisions over Oisin Fagan in 2004 and John Duddy two years ago.
IMMOVABLE OBJECT
The strategy was to keep Chavez at the end of Lee’s jab and go for a knockout late.
It appeared to be working as Lee’s right jab kept Chavez at bay for the first couple of rounds, his superior boxing skills presumably prevailing over a foe with virtually no amateur experience.
In addition to the jab, Chavez caught several uppercuts in the opening stanza and was clearly second best.
In the corner, Freddie Roach, the champion’s trainer, told his fighter they’d lost the round. “We gave that one away. A little more activity,” he beseeched Chavez.
The champion responded by landing a left at the start of the second round that excited the partisan crowd. Unruffled, Lee stuck to the plan and twice landed left uppercuts behind the jab to seal it.
Although still being outworked, Chavez began to close the distance in the third round between him and the rangy Lee, at 6-feet-two the taller by two inches. It had taken the son of Mexico’s greatest fighter close to nine minutes to solve the former Irish Olympian.
“I started to study him [and] saw he had no power. That’s when I came on,” Chavez said through an interpreter.
Despite eating shots from Lee, the powerful Mexican zeroed in on the challenger, pasting him with hard body shots and occasional rights to the head. He did his best work on the ropes while Lee had the upper hand in the middle of the small ring.
CompuBox still had Lee outlanding Chavez 16 to 9 in the third, a fact that concerned Roach.
“Don’t wait on him, don’t let him be first,” the trainer told Chavez in the corner. “You be first. Put pressure on him. You’re too strong for him.”
The champion would heed the instructions in the fourth, turning the fight around. A big Lee uppercut sparked a firefight. The crowd roared as Chavez fired off several shots including a thudding right flush on the mouth and an uppercut. Lee withstood the barrage and hit back, connecting with a right hook.
When the sweat and proverbial dust had settled, Chavez had for the first time outlanded Lee, scoring 22 power punches to 15 for the Irishman.
“You’re ouboxing him, you don’t have to fight inside, box the man,” trainer-manager Emanuel Steward pleaded with his fighter.
Lee tried doing that in the fifth with some success. He outworked Chavez again, connecting 26 punches on 68 attempts against the champion’s 19 hits on 39 tries. But Chavez’ were the harder shots and slowly taking their toll despite Steward telling his man that the champion was tiring.
The Hall of Fame trainer might have been onto something. In the opposite corner Chavez was complaining of leg cramps.
That, however, didn’t prevent him from outworking Lee in the sixth, only for the second time in the fight. He landed 24 out of 58 power shots against the now tiring challenger’s 20 of 47.
Steward’s instructions to Lee were emphatic: “put him back in the center of the ring and box his [behind],” the Kronk godfather intoned.
But it would be the tough champion who would impose his will on Lee in the next round. After steadily eroding Lee’s resistance with body shots, Chavez hurt the challenger with a right and then opened up with a vicious assault that forced referee Cole’s hand.
His output in the round would be 31 punches landed from 54 thrown. Lee scored just ten hits on 47 attempts.
“He’s a big middleweight,” Lee said later. “He’s heavy, I tried to move him with my shots. He’s a got a big heart and a good chin. He’s better than I thought. He’s champion for a reason. I tip my hat to him.”
Chavez, in contrast, was brimming with bravado after his third successful defense of the WBC title.
“From the first round, my legs were bothering me. I could have knocked him out earlier if it wasn’t for my legs,” he claimed.
