Lee to face familiar foe

BOXING:Andy Lee will face Germany's Alex Sipos on the undercard of Bernard Dunne's world title bout on March 21st, after the Limerick fighter was added to the card this week.

Lee was due to fight in Madison Square Garden next week before his bout fell through, but pomoter Brian Peters was quick to call on him to fill the void left by Ken Egan’s decision to forego his chance to fight in front of a big home crowd at The O2 Arena.

Lee has met Sipos before, when sparring with him at a training camp in Austria last year. The Munich fighter has a 19 wins, five defeats and two draws in his professional career and was considered unfortunate by some to lose to Finland’s Amin Asikainen in a European title bout in 2006.

However, he is now coming off the back of three straight defeats, two to fellow German Mahir Oral and one to Armenian Roman Aramian in September 2007.

Nevertheless, Peters believes he is capable of testing Lee in Dublin.

“I saw some of their sparring sessions in Austria and Sipos is a very, very good fighter but having been in there with him, Andy knows that better than anyone,” said the promoter.

“It’s an interesting match-up because Sipos gave a very good account of himself when he challenged for The European title in Finland. A few people at ringside believe he should have got the verdict but it went the hometown fighter's way.”

The fight will precede Dunne’s shot at the Ricardo Cordoba’s super-bantamweight WBA world title.

The undercard will also feature unbeaten Cavan star Andy Murray challenging Spain’s Daniel Rasilla for the EU lightweight title.

Middleweight Jim ‘The Pink Panther’ Rock faces Italy’s Alessio Furlan, who proved a handful for John Duddy when going 10 rounds with the Derry boxer at the National Stadium in July 2007.

Women’s world and European champion Katie Taylor will take on three-time Pan American champion Caroline Barry of the USA, while Olympic bronze medallist Paddy Barnes and world youth champion Ray Moylette will also be in action.