by Geoffrey Ciani (Exclusive Interview by Jenna J & Geoffrey Ciani) – This week’s 157th edition of On the Ropes Boxing Radio featured a special surprise interview with middleweight contender Andy Lee (27-1, 19 KOs), who recently was forced to pull out of a scheduled March 17 bout on the under card of the middleweight championship bout between Sergio Martinez and Matthew Macklin due to the lack of a suitable opponent. Lee spoke about his decision to pull out, and talked about his future plans in 2012. Here is a complete transcript from that interview:
JENNA J: Hi Andy.
ANDY LEE: Hi Jenna. How are you?
JENNA: I’m doing well. I thought maybe you could give the fans a little update and tell all your fans out there what your plans for 2012?
LEE: Well I have my heart set on fighting for a title this year. You know I’ve been a contender now for the last couple of years. Last year I had three good fights and moved myself up through the rankings and positioned myself well. I’m ready! This is my time, and this is the year really for me, my breakout year where I win a world title and hopefully do it in enough time to defend it this year, also. So I’m working hard here with Sugar Hill and Emanuel in the gym. I’ve done a lot of sparring with Ronald Hearns who’s getting ready to fight (Erislandy) Lara on February 11. Things are going well. So hopefully I’ll have a fight soon enough and I’ll be back in action.
JENNA: Alright well there has been a lot of talk about Felix Sturm. Are you ready to take that chance to go over to Germany to try and win that title?
LEE: Yeah there has been a lot of talk about it, but I don’t know. I know there was initial contact with Lou DiBella but I don’t think there have been any formal talks yet. If the offer was right I would definitely be willing to go over there. It would have to make sense, but I don’t see much danger in Sturm. He has a good style. He’s a very effective boxer, but I believe I can knock Sturm out. I think I’m much bigger and hit way too hard. I think we’ve seen in his last few fights that he’s just on the slide a little bit. So I would be very confident in stopping him, and going over there and getting a knockout or a late stoppage.
JENNA: Alright well Emanuel also mentioned Daniel Geale, and said it was a style that he would actually prefer you to get into the ring with. What do you think about that potential fight?
LEE: I think that’s a great fight for me. I’m not going to be disrespectful, but of all the champions Danny Geale would probably not the strongest of the champions. But he’s a good fighter, he’s technical and aggressive, and he fights with a lot of desire as well. I had seen that when he went over there and challenged Sylvester. I would like to be a challenger. I heard that after he has a defense on March 3, and after that he’d like to come to the States and fight and I would like to be the challenger for that fight. Like I said I’m well positioned. All I need is a chance, for one of these champions to give me a chance and they will lose their belts.
GEOFFREY CIANI: Hey Andy. How are you doing?
LEE: Hey Geoff. How are you doing?
CIANI: Good! Just wanted to quickly ask you, how surprised were you when you first heard Sergio Martinez was defending against Matthew Macklin, and were you at all disappointed when you first got that news?
LEE: Yeah I was very disappointed to tell you the truth. I had hoped to be fighting Martinez March 17 in New York. I had hoped that would be my title challenge, and you know it was disappointing. That’s really one of the reasons why I’m not fighting March 17 in New York, because I felt that I should have been the one challenging Martinez. Then when they couldn’t find a suitable opponent for me to fight on the undercard, then the whole thing kind of just fell apart. Me and Emanuel just said look, we’ve positioned ourselves well now. We don’t need to take any risky fights, or any stupid fights, or any meaningless fights on an undercard. I believe I’m bigger that, and I should be headlining fights, and I should be challenging for a title. I think now I deserve my shot at Martinez because I had two good fights last year on HBO, and another fight in between that where I won the NABF title and the NABA title. I don’t see what more I have to do. I’ve beaten everybody I’ve been in the ring with, I’ve avenged my only loss, and I’ve been in 30 fights now, I’m age 27, and lesser fighters have had title shots. You know, I don’t know what I have to do really to get a title shot!
CIANI: When you get that type of frustration and that kind of thing hits you, as a boxer how do you keep that in the back of your mind so it doesn’t distract you and get you in the wrong state of mind?
LEE: Well it’s very disheartening, especially over the last couple of weeks. You get disillusioned with things, but it’s also a good feeling. I’ve been hitting the gym very hard the last couple of weeks and taking out all the frustration. I’ve been sparring with a lot of intensity, but it’s very frustrating. You do everything you can in the ring. Like I know I’m not the only fighter, every fighter experiences this stuff. You work hard in the gym and you do your best in the ring, and you’re told that everybody on the outside is doing their job and fighting for you the best way they can. With the politics of boxing it doesn’t always matter what the boxers are doing. Most boxers you meet are nice guys, friendly guys, and honest people who work hard trying to achieve a goal. The politics and everybody else on the outside that can really bring a lot of trouble to boxing though and it can cause a lot of frustration and anger.
JENNA: Alright Andy, before you hand us back over to Emanuel I wanted to ask you about an upcoming fight. It takes place on February 4 between Julio Cesar Chavez Junior and Marco Antonio Rubio. I’m just curious who you are favoring in that fight, and if it’s Chavez that wins it would you want that fight?
LEE: Yeah. You know I was put forward to be one of the challengers to Chavez for that February 4 fight way back in December, and Top Rank turned me down. I’m not sure if they’re looking out for Chavez, but now they’re fighting Rubio which is a tough, tough fight. He’s very experienced as we saw against (David) Lemieux. He’s a dangerous and very seasoned professional, but the only thing I think he has going against him is his size. He’s naturally I think a smaller guy. Chavez comes to the ring, blows up a lot after the weigh-in, and comes to the ring maybe near 175 to 180. So I think Chavez probably will be a little bit too physically strong for him, and he has improved a lot Chavez in his last few fights. He’s shown that he’s improving all the time. I would favor Chavez, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Rubio upset him.
JENNA: Finally, is there anything you want to say to your fans out there Andy?
LEE: I just want to thank you all for the support. I know I got a lot of messages on Twitter after the cancellation of my March 17 fight. I’m very disappointed not to be fighting in New York. I know a lot of people in Ireland who bought tickets and a lot of people in the area bought tickets and wanted to come see my fight. I’m very upset for those guys and I’m very upset for myself. But I’ll fight on. I’m working hard and I’ll have another fight soon. Look out for this year. It’s going to be a big year for me. Thank you guys from On the Ropes for giving me plenty of coverage. I’ll give you back to Emanuel.
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For those interested in listening to the Andy Lee interview in its entirety, it begins approximately one hour twenty-four minutes into the program.
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