Boxing News: Moments after disposing of the ungainly Alejandro Falliga, Andy Lee found himself closeted in his dressingroom, wincing as Dr Joe McKeever applied three stitches to close the wound the Argentine's head had inflicted on the corner of his right eye.
Dr McKeever assured Lee that the cut was a superficial one, and that the residual damage should not imperil next month's fight against Brian Vera, a March 21st date at the Mohegan Sun Arena that will mark Lee's first nationally-televised main event in America.
"But," said Lee with a wink, "it might get me out of sparring with Wladimir next week."
The Limerick middleweight made a triumphant return to his hometown Saturday night, knocking Falliga down four times in less than five rounds in posting the 15th win of his unbeaten professional career, but it was an inartistic bout unlikely to provide many moments on Lee's personal highlight film.
From the outset Falliga, who brought a 14-3-2 record to Saturday night's contest at the University Sports Arena, elected to maintain an almost perversely safe distance, a tactic which not only effectively took Lee's jab out of play but negated any thought of traditional boxing.
With Lee chasing him around trying to cut off the ring, the Argentine would occasionally interrupt his retreat to fling himself at Lee, usually with desperate roundhouse rights, and occasionally, with his head. Somewhat disturbingly, one of the latter and at least a few of the former appeared to find their mark. Although Lee claimed to have been unaffected by Falliga's wild rights, the mouse on his left eye suggested otherwise.
"It was as if he did everything he could to make me look bad," said Lee. "But the bottom line," said Lee's trainer/manager Emanuel Steward, "is that Andy stopped a guy who'd never been stopped before. From the second round on it was obvious that (Falliga) was just in a survival mode. He wasn't boxing, he wasn't even throwing any real punches, and he was trying to butt Andy every time he got a chance."
On a date celebrated as Groundhog Day in America, Lee was eventually able to pound Falliga into the canvas as if he'd been using one of those rubber mallets on a pesky rodent in the arcade game. On an evening when conventional tactics were not an option, he was forced to improvise his game plan on the fly, and after knocking Falliga down once in the second round, Lee finally caught up with him in the fifth, flooring his opponent three times in the first minute and a half of the round. The end came when referee Emile Tiedt intervened with Falliga's arms wrapped around Lee's waist while the Irishman rained left hands off his head as he sank to the floor.
"It's kind of disappointing in a way," said Lee. "I mean, it was what it was, a win. I'm happy enough with that, and the reception from the people of Limerick was fantastic, but I'd really wanted to showcase my boxing skills and I didn't get a chance to do that."
In keeping with the busy timetable Steward has laid out for him, Lee won't spend long recovering from Saturday night's exercise. Although the cut inflicted by Falliga's head may get him excused from his scheduled role impersonating Sultan Ibragimov, who will face his stablemate, IBF heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko, February 23rd in New York, Lee will begin training for his March fight against Vera within the next few weeks.
Saturday night Steward forecast a five-bout plan that seemed increasingly mind-boggling with each step: the March Vera fight will be followed by one in April ("we're trying to get Willie Gibbs") and a return to Ireland in May for another Brian Peters promotion. (For that one, Steward brought up Howard Eastman's name again). "Then in June I'm hoping to have Andy fight Winky Wright," said the Hall of Fame trainer.
If that doesn't sound overly ambitious, Steward also announced - to the crowd, from the Limerick ring - that he is "in negotiations with Bob Arum to have Andy Lee fight the winner of the (June 7th) Kelly Pavlik-John Duddy fight."
As he listened to Steward from across the arena, Belfast trainer John Breen shook his head.
"Andy did what he had to do tonight," said Breen, "but if Kelly Pavlik catches Lee with one of those right hands Falliga hit him, he'll knock him out."
Limerick results
MIDDLEWEIGHTS: Andy Lee, 159½, Limerick, Ire TKO'd Alejandro Gustavo Falliga, 159¼, Buenos Aires, Argentina (5th round); Pavel Lotah, 155¼, Riga, Latvia dec Ciarán Healy, Belfast, Northern Ireland 160½ (6).
HEAVYWEIGHTS: Ismaikel Perez, 239, Sancti Spiritus, Cuba KO'd Sandor Balogh, 208½, Bekescsaba, Hungary (1).
CRUISERWEIGHTS: Michael Sweeney, 197½, Ballinrobe, Co Mayo dec Remigijus Ziausys, 194, Klaipeda, Lithuania (4).
SUPER MIDDLEWEIGHT: Jason McKay, 163½, Craigavon, Northern Ireland dec Martins Kukuls, 181½, Tukums, Latvia (6).
WELTERWEIGHTS: Paul McCloskey, 142½, Dungiven, Northern Ireland dec Manuel Garnica, 142½, Guadalajara, Mexico (10).
