Andy Lee Comes to the Windy City This Friday Night
By Jorge “BoxWrite” Garcia
On Friday, 8 Count Productions will present their latest installment of the “Windy City Fight Night” series with a great night of action from the UIC Pavilion in Chicago, Illinois. Windy City Fight Night 12 features top ten middleweight prospect Andy Lee, 22-1, 16 KO’s, of London, U.K., taking on rugged veteran and Chicago’s own Michael “The Midnight Stalker” Walker, 19-4-2, 12 KO’s, in a 12 round middleweight showdown.
Also, in the co-main event hometown favorite Luciano “El Michoacano” Perez, 17-10-1, 15 KO’s, will square up against undefeated Anton “The Pick Hammer” Novikov, 16-0, 6 KO’s, from Kopeysk, Russia in a 8 round light middleweight bout.
At 6′-2″ Andy Lee will have a 7″ reach advantage over the experienced Walker who is hoping to get back on the winning track after suffering a few losses to the likes of Daniel Jacobs and Fernando Guerrero. Lee on the other hand is looking to keep his winning ways, after his TKO loss to Brian Vera, in hopes of challenging for a World title in the near future.
The highly regarded and undefeated Andy Lee came into the Vera fight with high expectations and was consistently praised by his excellent trainer Emanuel Steward. But when the end to the bout came, Lee was on a stool being worked on while Vera was parading around the ring after the referee in charged awarded him a 7th round TKO victory.
Some fans still say the stoppage was a bit premature but re-watching the fight you got the sense that Lee was going to eventually fall to power punching Vera on that night. After that loss Andy Lee is on a tear as he currently boast a 7 fight win streak and with the help of his trainer I have to believe that he might be more fundamentally sound that he would have been if he was still undefeated.
The always game Walker will be stepping into the ring looking to pick up his first win in nearly two years after failing to come on the winning side of his last 3 bouts. To his credit, those losses have come against top notch competition losing a competitive bout to the highly regarded Daniel Jacobs. The boxer-puncher Walker will make Lee work throughout the whole fight all while trying to land his power shots off his high guard. Walker’s come-forward style and warrior mentality should make for an entertaining bout no matter how long or short the fight may last.
In the co-main event Anton Novikov is looking to stay unbeaten against the always tough Luciano Perez in his first bout in the United States. Novikov has only fought twice outside his native Russia since he turned pro back in July of 2007 so this bout will be important for his career as he tries to climb up the boxing ladder.
As for Perez, he has been in the ring with some top competition including Erislandy Lara, Mike Jones, Carlos Baldomir, and Alfonso Gomez. Perez always fights his heart on his sleeve which has resulted in a mixed bag of results but by using his relentless pressure and limited skills he has gained a fan base around the country with his rugged style. Uncertain of what Novikov has to offer I’m personally eager to see how this fight will unfold come Friday night.
With 9 bouts scheduled for Windy City Fight Night 12 be sure to attend if you are near the area for what will sure be an action packed night of fights.