Andy Lee & Paul Mc Closkey Fighting tonight

This is possibly the second or third best bill Peters has put on since Dunne came back from America, with only the Dunne v Martinez, Oakey v Magee, Lee v Healy, McCloskey v Di Feto, Macklin v Rhodes card being clearly above it .

The Duddy Eastman card just shades tonights .

Anyway Andy lee and Paul McCloskey both take on the toughest test of their careers tonight in Limerick . Lee despite losing in his last fight to Brian Vera takes on former USBA champion Willie Gibbs . While McCloskey after beaten former World champion Cesar Bazan in his last fight takes on English Light-Welterweight champion and former British/Commonwealth title challenger Nigel Wright .

Gibbs has proven himself at American domestic level, beating decent fighters such as Leonard Pierre and Cuban Giorbis Barthelemy . However he has falling short at the level above, being stopped in 4 in a wild fight with Daniel Edouard, chinned in a round by the huge punching Edison Miranda and losing a close decision to the veteran Raymond Joval .

Gibbs hasn't been active but has had plenty of notice for this and more than enough time to get into optimum shape and get some sparring in .
Style wise he's less of a threat than Vera, loving to brawl but liking to do so in a counter attacking manner . He carries more power than Vera and is much more experienced too . This would be an extremely good win for Lee and it's possible he can get it without correcting the flaws from the Vera fight .
Hopefully though we'll see Lee tie up strong any time he needs to and hopefully he has developed a tighter more effective inside game .


Paul McCloskey's opponent Nigel Wright certainly isn't bad either, he's been in with some very good fighter in Olusegun, Daws(x2) and Kevin McIntyre and comes away from those 5 fights with a record of 1-3-1 . He lost to the true(although not technically) British Welterweight Champion Kevin McIntyre early in his career on points but avenged the defeat courtesy of some wicked body shots in just 1 round .

He lost his challenge for the British title to Lenny Daws, being totally outworked despite a good start but rematching Daws 18 months later he had made the neccesary improvements to get a draw in a decent scrap .

In his last fight he took on the supposedly World Class Ajose Olusegun(4th by the WBC), Wright went into a strong lead early on but faded down the stretch as Olusegun came back to take a close decision .

He's always beaten guys clearly at English title level, Dean Hickman, Alan Bosworth, Gary Reid, it's just above that level Wright has come up short(barely) . If you beat him you're definitely capable of winning the British title and your probably capable of winning the European . I think most of us suspect McCloskey is even above those two accomplishments but tonight will be the first time he proves it .

If he wants a fight with Branco for the European title, tonight he has to show he deserves it . Neither fighter holds a World rank but McCloskey is ranked 14th by the EBU and Wright 20th .

The EBA is just a bull**** sanctioning organisation in Europe made up by the WBA . However to help give an overall view of how things are seen as far as ranking these two, McCloskey is 13th with the EBA and Wright is 15th .

Domestically Wright is ranked #10 in Britain and McCloskey is 11th(that's not an official BBBofC ranking though) . These rankings are comprised by midlands journalist Tom Podmore but they're the ones you see used on Sky, BritishBoxing.net and possibly Boxing News aswell(not sure on that though)

If McCloskey can't beat Wright we should give up any ideas about him ever winning a World title .

Haughian's opponent looks to have a decent record and hopefully he'll get a decent test tonight . I was very impressed with Stephen in his last bout and definitely think he can make it at European level, his style kind of reminds me of Steve Collins aswell .

The rest of the lads seem to have relatively easy match ups, although McKay's opponent is a little better than his record suggest but I still don't see Jason losing that .

Should be a very interesting nights boxing .

Something to keep an eye out for aswell is Jermain Mackey fight Michael Gbenga for the vacant Commonwealth Super-Middleweight title tonight in the Bahamas . Brian Magee could have been fighting for the title instead of Gbenga, but had a small issue as regards contracts and Gbenga stepped in and Magee is now mandatory for the winner . So we're probably going to be seeing Magee v Mackey for the Commonwealth title sometime in the near future .

Missed the 4 four rounds of the McCloskey fight(I'll watch them tomorrow) but unless Paul took almost everyone of them he wasn't a 4 point winner .

I wouldn't be shocked when I score that tomorrow if I have Wright winning, although with that said a lot of the rounds were close .

Great fight though, and about time one of our guys had a real test .

Babybing wrote: »

I think he did take the first four rounds tbh Big ears. He looked much better in the earlier rounds and actually looked quite comfortable.

Why does the ref score the fight instead of a panel of judges though? Is there particular circumstances for when judges are required?

Well in most countries(bar some of the big ones) fights without a title on the line are judged by a referee . Irish title fights only use a referee aswell(although that's not uncommon either) but any other title means a panel of judges .
Had McCloskey put his IBF International title on the line then there would of been judges .

Have to agree, Lee was superb. He fought the right fight and was completely measured in all responses. He knew when to step it up to Gibbs and when not to.
Really enjoyable nights boxing.
As for Magee, go easy on him, if it wasn't for him I'd have never known Lee was 'the white man' - RETIREMENT HOME PLEASE!!!!!

I would like to see Lee face the likes of Miranda before the year is out.

Lee V Miranda would be class.




Dave McCauley isnt much better than Magee. Pick of his quotes last night was:


"These men are throwing lefts, their throwing rights, thier throwing body shots and head shots. Lee needs to move in and bang bang"


Insightful.


Aside from repeating the exact same thing at least six times every fight all he does is sit there and say "this opponent is world class" or scream at the top of his voice "whoa!" every time the most inconsequential jab lands.:rolleyes:

nacho libre wrote: »

I would like to see Lee face the likes of Miranda before the year is out.

I was very impressed with Andy last night and he has fixed one of his two big flaws . He's now able to tie up properly when he needs to, but with Steward as his trainer I suspected that wouldn't be too hard to fix . The other problem is much more worrying and that's that he has to be able to fight on the inside at least some of the time .

It's why right now a guy like Miranda is all wrong for him and a guy like Winky would be perfect .

Until Andy is able to fight effectively at least some of the time they should keep him away from guys like Miranda and be very careful about which opponents they pick . Lee can beat top opponents right now, they just need to have the right style for him .

I'd like to see Andy in with Howard Eastman next, hopefully become only the second man to stop him and then take a step up after that . There's no reason to rush Lee, he's still learning . But at the same time they'll have to be careful not to baby him(which there has been no evidence of so far), i THINK Steward will get it just right .

Brian Vera is making the same mistake Kevin McBride did when he beat Mike Tyson, beating an unranked well known guy not in his prime does not result in a title shot or a big fight and Vera will find himself waiting, and waiting, and waiting till he has to take a lower key fight than he wanted for less money than a Lee rematch and still get beat . It makes most sense for both guys to take the fight .

nacho libre wrote: »

Not to take away anything from Lee's performance last night, but I felt Lee would beat Gibbs fairly easily. To me it wasn't a proper test. Gibb's style suited him.
Miranda would be a risky fight for Lee based on his inability to mix it up on the inside. That's exactly why i would like to see him fight Miranda. It would be a real test.
Perhaps it's unwise at this stage to put him against the likes of Miranda but if he is to win one of main titles at middleweight or super-middleweight he's going to have to become comfortable fighting on the inside when the situation calls for it. The way Manny is talking he's capable of beating the likes of Abraham and Pavlik within the next year. I honestly can't see him beating either of these two based on what i've seen so far.

I suspected Lee would give the performance he gave and I said in several forums(although I dunno if I said it here) that although Gibbs is a better fighter than Vera his style is much better suited to Lee .

A fight with Miranda right now would be suicide, Lee wouldn't last 3 rounds . Yes if he's going to be a proper champion in the future he has to be able to beat guys like that, but Lee is still a prospect and he's still developing, no need to rush him .

The perfect fight probably would be a Vera rematch, but Vera seems to have priced himself out, and what I'm hearing is either Eastman or Randy Griffin next in Limerick . I think both of those guys would be decent opponents for Lee, and if Andy was to beat Griffin he could find himself very high up the WBA rankings and Lee may be capable of beating Sturm .

However it is still quite a step up from Gibbs and I'd like to see Lee beat Eastman, then look for a return with Vera who's camp should have come to their senses by then . After that look for Griffin and then either Sturm or someone like maybe Soliman and then Sturm .

Ignore what Steward is saying, there is no need to have Lee fighting the divisions best within the next year . Miranda can't even make Middleweight anyway and anyone who was unhappy with the weight difference in the Vera fight would be cringing at the one in a Lee-Miranda match up . Miranda has the reach of a heavyweight to at 80 inches which could neutralise even Lee's ranged fighting .

So taken on a murderous punching, extremely long armed, aggressive Super-Middleweight before the year is out just seems a little crazy to me .