Lee vs. Vera

[The Fightfan]

Well I was going to start my own thread about all this but this looks like a fine place to post.


So Andy Lee is supposed to be the next big thing in the middleweight division...well I still believe it and I'm sticking by my boy.


Vera was a solid super middleweight and usually when bringing a fighter a long you find fights vs smaller fighters and build up their confidence. Vera is still a limited fighter but he's tough and stubborn and if you mess up in your strategy this is what happens.

Andy Lee tatooed Vera with power punches....they knocked him down once but never really buster his face up or cut him or bothered him other than a few times.

This fight is where EXPERIENCE would have paid off rather than sheer determination and guts....this is why Wladimir Klitschko is a Champion and (sorry to offend anyone) this is how we really know Andy Lee is Irish.

Andy gave us an exciting fight, trading power punches with someone obviously less talented than himself, both fighters paying little to no attention to defense or skill.....that is how journeymen win, that is how upsets happen and this is a VALUEABLE LEARNING EXPERIENCE. Sure Andy Lee is no longer undefeated but it's one less thing he has to worry about. What Andy has to do now is to regroup, fight on, box a little more, develop his defense and in-fighting(perhaps an uppercut would suit him) and his confidence will come back and he's going to obviously aim for a rematch if he's a smart fella (so it'll answer any questions as he builds his legacy) ....well hell he's Irish I'm sure he'll curse Vera until he has the opportunity to fight him again.

Andy Lee is going to be ok, he's got to pick his spots and learn what Wlad and Lennox and Tommy Hearns have had to learn. Andy answered questions about his chin and his heart and his guts but he has to be a SMART fighter and he can do it, I have no doubts about it...he's going to regroup and this loss will be good for him now as opposed to happening under different circumstances...he didn't get sparked out either which is also good news.

As for the stoppage, it was coming but I think the timing was God awful....Lee just answered back and seemed to be coming out of it....now before that then yeah I could see it coming. That ref wasn't the best in the world.

This loss is a MINOR setback given the circumstances and the opponent

Do you think Lee has power? I mean he hit Vera with every straight left hand he could possibly throw and still Vera didn't budge.I think he has very good skills but no power and when he's pressured from what I've seen he's lost (meaning he doesn't know what to do, not literally lost).I like 'em but he will never be a champion.

[El Kabong]

For Aaron Pryor Jr., he's waaaaay too skinny and weak to be fighting at 160 he should put on muscle and be fighting at 175 or at least 168.



I think Andy Lee has good power, Vera can take a punch he just couldn't take Jaidon Codrington's and that was at 168 and without his regular training. I think Brian Vera is a very tough guy and was a little too big of a step up for Andy at this point in his career. Andy could use a few pounds and some more muscle.

[luvfightgame]

I finally watched the fight. It was a bad stoppage. Yes, Lee was eating leather. Yes, it looked like he was about to go down any time now, but he didn't and he kept throwing punches. He actually wasn't even staggering.

Lee was trying to get the highlight reel ko and instead got tkod. He could have thrown combos and tko'd Vera. I saw very good offence from Lee, just that Vera could walk through his punches. Vera was too strong, and Lee tried to ko him.

Great fight, bad stoppage. If Lee made it through the round you know Manny would have had him boxing the next couple. Lee got beat mentally by fighting Vera's fight and trying to outtough him.

[El Kabong]

I finally watched the fight. It was a bad stoppage. Yes, Lee was eating leather. Yes, it looked like he was about to go down any time now, but he didn't and he kept throwing punches. He actually wasn't even staggering.

Lee was trying to get the highlight reel ko and instead got tkod. He could have thrown combos and tko'd Vera. I saw very good offence from Lee, just that Vera could walk through his punches. Vera was too strong, and Lee tried to ko him.

Great fight, bad stoppage. If Lee made it through the round you know Manny would have had him boxing the next couple. Lee got beat mentally by fighting Vera's fight and trying to outtough him.

That is EXACTLY the point I made in my "Lyle was right" thread, which compared how Andy Lee fought vs Vera to what Wladimir Klitschko did vs Sultan Ibragimov.

I think the tipping point really came before the fight with how bad Pryor Jr. did....Manny was in the corner then and he IMO could have been put in a mood where he wanted to show that his fighter could do something terrific and it got him TKO'd.

That being said, as a fighter you have to know yourself and Andy Lee should have felt how Vera took his punches and known better than to go toe to toe with him....he hit him whenever he wanted to he just gave out of gas.


The stoppage was bad, I would have agreed had it been stopped earlier because Lee was taking some big shots but when the fight was finally stopped it was anti-climactic and Andy Lee seemed to have weathered the worst.