LAUGH and the boxing world laughs with you, cry and you often cry alone. Andy Lee knows all about that.
Lee was riding high at 15-0 with 10 knockout wins when he was stopped by unfancied Brian Vera in 2008 and after that shock defeat his stock as a fighter plummeted dramatically. The phone stopped ringing and he was forced to gradually rebuild his career, beating Vera in a rematch on the way to silencing his doubters and winning the WBO middleweight title at the second attempt in 2014.
Now Limerick native Lee is giving Jason Quigley the benefit of all that experience. Quigley’s first loss was against Tureano Johnson two years ago and after it he turned to Lee who took over from Brendan Ingle as his coach.
The first serious test of their promising partnership comes on Saturday night against Shane Mosley Junior in Las Vegas.
“We both reacted differently (to defeat),” says Lee.
“Jason is a much more positive person than I am. Even though it hurt, he was a lot more upbeat about it than I was (when I lost to Vera) but I don’t think he realised the impact of what a loss would have.
“He’s had two years’ of pain. He’s had two fights and they’ve been against two nobody’s really, no disrespect to those guys but they were ‘opponents’. He’s had to wait and work hard for two years to get back up to the bigger stage and he’s been steadfast in his resolve. He could easily have walked away because everyone else was fighting in the last couple of years and he hasn’t been given any fights really – or any that would excite him.
“That’s what happens when you lose in boxing. So he’s had to work hard and what you’ll see on Saturday night and what I’m seeing in the gym is somebody who’s in control of himself at all times during a round.
“He knows what he’s doing in the exchanges and in the moments – he knows what he’s doing and why he’s doing it, he knows what it will lead to. He’s a lot more in control of himself when he’s fighting.”
Since that loss to Johnson almost two years ago, Quigley has fought just twice. His opponent Mosley junior (17-3) has been more active and he won the WBO NABO super-middleweight belt in February this year. Lee doesn’t expect Quigley’s relative inactivity to be a factor on Saturday night.
“Jason is always going to start fast,” Lee said.
“The more energy you put into the early rounds, the more of a pay-off you get going down the stretch.
“The more you put in, the more you take out of your opponent. Jason has had plenty of good sparring but he hasn’t fought. There might be a bit of rustiness there but he’ll have to deal with that.
“You look at his amateur career and the class of a fighter that he is and Mosley being more active shouldn’t level the score – Jason is still several leagues ahead of him. It’s a good fight, it’s a game fight, Mosley junior will come to win and he comes to fight and if you’re not up for that he’s going to turn you over.
“Jason knows what he’s up against and he knows exactly what he has to do to win the fight.”
