Andy Lee STOPS Matt Korobov to Win WBO Middleweight Title
By Lou Eisen
Anyone that has followed the sport of boxing for a long time must be truly dissatisfied with the current state of professional pugilism after witnessing so many terrible decisions in the last week or so. However, a silver lining appeared amid all of the lousy decisions rendered this week and its name is “Irish” Andy Lee, 34-2, 24 KO’s. Lee is one of the real good guys in pro boxing. He has a worldwide fan base and is widely admired and respected by his colleagues and his opponents. Lee, the 6’2” southpaw, is a skilled technical boxer with tremendous power in his right hand. He was trained by one of the true masters of the sport, Emanuel Steward, who never once lost confidence in him and treated him like a son.
Lee fulfilled his promise and a lifelong dream this past weekend at the Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas before a sold out crowd, by spectacularly stopping Matt Korobov, 24-1, 14 KO’s in six rounds to win the WBO world middleweight title. Lee boxed very well in the early part of the fight. Korobov was landing more often and more accurately though and was judged to have won the first five rounds of the fight. In the sixth round though, Korobov came a cropper as Lee caught him with a blistering counter right hook flush on the button. Korobov was hurt and wobbled to the ropes on unsteady legs, like a drunk trying to hail a cab after last call.
Lee realized at that singular moment that the time to let it all hang out was now and seized the advantage with both hands, jumping on Korobov immediately and punishing him with a relentless fusillade of power punches to the head until Kenny Bayless wisely jumped in and stopped the fight at 1:10 of round six. Emanuel Steward told Lee eight years ago when he first signed him that he would one day become the world middleweight champion. It is worth noting that Steward’s confidence in Lee never once wavered throughout their long association together.
Lee fought a very smart defensive fight in the first five rounds, not engaging Korobov until the opportunity arose. Well, opportunity knocked earlier than was previously expected but Lee was there to answer the door in dramatic fashion. Lee, a classic counter puncher followed his game plan to perfection. His strategy was to control Korobov and the pace of the fight with his jab, while attempting to take the muscle-bound Russian into the later rounds, where presumably, his punches would no longer be dangerous. Korobov’s physique was rather intimidating to look at, however, as we all know, looks can be deceiving at times and the abrupt ending to this all action fight demonstrated the old adage to still be true.
Heading into the sixth and what turned out to be final round, Lee was trailing on all three scorecards. In fact, most observers were hard pressed to score even one round for Lee, up to that point in the bout. Lee remained calm though and smartly bided his time. He was careful not to be over eager and make a mistake by trying to force a knockout to happen. He showed himself to be a cagey, confident and calculating veteran fighter by waiting for precisely the right moment to go for the knockout.
Lee had hurt Korobov earlier in the fight but did not pursue his advantage at that point in time, probably because he sensed that Korobov was not as hurt as he appeared to be to the fans and the HBO broadcast team.
Korobov was landing some really hard body shots on Lee that reverberated throughout the arena whenever they landed. By round six, Lee’s flanks were a mass of red welts due to Korobov’s heavy-handed shots to Lee’s unprotected midsection. Korobov seemed to move Lee every time he caught him with a good shot upstairs. Lee kept on circling and turning Korobov in an effort to stop him from setting his feet long enough to throw more damaging blows upstairs on the lanky Irishman. In the first four rounds of the bout, Lee kept a healthy distance from Korobov, using his superior reach to jab the Russian mauler while staying just out of counter punching range.
However, Lee is a smart fighter and he realized that if he wanted to become a world champion, he would need to gradually, almost imperceptibly close the distance on Korobov and that is what he did. That is what won him the fight. Up to that point, Lee was throwing huge left hooks that missed their mark by fractions of an inch. Like many southpaws, Lee’s most dangerous punch is his right hook, which he used to win his previous fight against John Jackson in dramatic fashion. He fell behind in that fight as well.
Jackson is the son of the former power punching world champion Julian Jackson. Jackson was clearly dominating the older Lee with speed and power; even managing to drop Lee in round one. The fight took place at MSG in New York in June. The young Jackson was winning the fight handily until Lee tagged him right on the button in round five with a sensational counter right hand that dropped Jackson to the canvas, out cold. With that one punch, Lee resurrected his entire career. If he had lost that fight, he would have been considered a mere steppingstone in the sport, a name for young up and coming fighters to have on their resume.
That win and blind luck earned him the chance to challenge for Peter Quillen’s vacated WBO middleweight title. Ironically, it was Quillen that vacated the title rather than face Korobov. Billy Joe Saunders from Britain was offered the fight next but he backed out and fought and beat Chris Eubanks, JR. recently. When Lee was asked if he was interested in taking the bout, he immediately said, “Yes!!!!!”
With this win Lee put himself right back in the thick of things in the already stacked middleweight division. He now has an opportunity to make some huge money with possible fights against Gennady Golovkin, Miguel Cotto, David Lemieux and a host of other fighters. Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of Lee’s victory is that, two years after his untimely death, Emanuel Steward is still producing world champions. To be sure, Steward was, without a doubt, smiling down on Lee for this fight. It is Steward’s heart, soul and talent that now live on in Irish Andy Lee. Branch Rickey once said that luck is the residue of design. Fortunately for Lee, Steward, one of boxing’s all-time great architects, crafted his design.
