Andy Lee ready to show the class that brought him world title

This week hasn't moved towards Andy Lee as it might have, his world title defence against Billy Joe Saunders coming in the shadow of combat sports capitulation to the whirlwind Conor McGregor.

It has been difficult to see these days beyond the wash created by the MMA and endless talk of McGregor’s next move and how much of a dollar mountain he can build. The only reference to boxing in the UFC mind has been if the cage fighter can equal the money Floyd Mayweather has accumulated.

In the Manchester Arena tonight it should be the beginning of Lee’s journey as WBO middleweight world champion. In a career that has strung out for more than a decade, a long journey is far from a certainty.

As the chosen one for the legendary trainer Manny Steward, the promise was always there for Lee. He hit some high marks and fell back, then largely out of sight in the USA made a return and carved out for himself what he has now.

The initial step up to world level arrived late. In 2012 his first title challenge came against undefeated Julio César Chávez Jr for the WBC World Middleweight title. Lee lost that showdown in The Sun Bowl Stadium, El Paso, Texas.

When Steward died, Lee came under the tutelage of England’s Adam Booth and shrugged off the Chávez knock back. Returning from his loss, he outpointed Anthony Fitzgerald over 10 rounds at the Odyssey Arena in Belfast.

In June of 2014 he was in Madison Square Garden working for another title shot. Lee went down in the first round for the first time in his career before knocking John Jackson out in the fifth.

He was back. An opportunity to meet the undefeated Matt Korobov fell his way. Lee wobbled Korobov with a straight left in the third. Korobov regained composure and seemed to control the fight until round six. A right hook. A flurry of 18 straight unanswered punches and referee Kenny Bayless stepped in.

Like he had against Jackson, Lee won his world title coming from behind. These last two years have been his moving years after six years of building the foundations. His first professional fight was in March 2006.

His has been a case of the twilight of his career bringing its own candles and at 32 and a decade along the turning road, Lee has been a world champion for just a few days over a year. Even that simple time span took a twist.

First a viral infection delay and no homecoming fight in Thomond Park, then a sparring cut to opponent Saunders and the year drew out to where it is now. These last six months have almost been a microcosm of his career, a waiting game underpinned by patience and belief.

Mandatory

"It's dragged out," he told Second Captains Irish Times pod cast this week. "If I'm being totally honest, it's not a fight I would have had. I want to fight the big fights in America. Billy Joe Saunders is the mandatory challenger. We signed the contract so . . . But it's a serious champion I'm facing. I can't allow the postponements to wear me down. I have to stay positive.

“We’re in fight mode now and everyone is saying different things. I know his mindset. He’s very hungry. He’ll come. He’ll come hard and he’s not going to wilt away from a challenge. I know the type of personality he is.

“He’s not the type of person to shy away from anything. I’m expecting a hard fight and I’ll have to be at my best to beat him. But I do everything he does but better. I’m technically better. More reach. More power. At the end of the day, that’s what it boils down to.”

These past few days Lee has been boiling off the pounds. Opinion is wildly varied. If he can last the opening blitz of the younger man, a tiring Saunders will find it difficult to get around the long reach and frame.

Saunders will be busy and aggressive, wary of Lee’s hard left. Both are southpaws with Saunders contending that Lee doesn’t enjoy fighting those of his own ilk – southpaws.

It’s also a Traveller fight. That again for the Limerick man is more of a distraction for him, where he could, had he wanted, made it a cause.

“It’s an extra layer to the fight, another sub plot,” he says of his Traveller roots. “I can’t allow that to play on my mind. It doesn’t really mean much to me. I know a million guys like him. I know how hard it is to grow up in that community, how competitive it is.

“Its male-dominated. He can’t show any weakness. Travelling boys grow up a lot faster because they have to fend for themselves in that environment. It’s kill or be killed. If you go to the National Stadium for finals, half of the boys there are Travellers. It’s something they get into, something they have pride in.”

Unbeaten

Lee (34-2-1, 24 KOs) has fought at a higher level in his career, while Saunders (22-0, 12 KOs) is unbeaten and a former British, Commonwealth and European champion. Lee knows it and for all Saunders’s energy and physical attributes, there’s another dimension to winning.

“In terms of boxing, he is young and I have to make that count,” says Lee. “I have to let him deal with things he has not dealt with before, internally, in his mind. He has never been in a hard fight.

“He probably feels he’s the slight underdog. That’s creating a doubt in his mind. And as the fight goes on and I hit him with a hard punch, that’s creating more doubt.”

That is Lee’s strength, the unseen intelligence that he has in the ring and also outside it. His defeat to Chávez and his comeback to beat Korobov adds up to a sometimes underrated body of work.

If the sporting world is godly, then a win for the Irishman should place another combat sport on an equal footing with MMA.

Lee v Saunders is live on BoxNation. Go to boxnation.com to subscribe