Much hyped and ballyhooed (especially by Emanuel Steward, his trainer) middleweight Andy Lee made what Uatu believes was Lee's first televised appearance against Brian Vera of The Contender on Friday Night Fights last night.
Uatu fell asleep watching college hoops as he figured this would be a quick KO win by Lee, since Steward has said many times that Lee is ready for Kelly Pavlik right now. Well, imagine Uatu's surpise this morning checking through results on ESPN.com to find out that Lee was stopped in the seventh round.
Watching the highlights, Lee knocked Vera down in the first, but it was a weak knockdown. As the fight progressed, Vera tagged Lee over and over with hard shots. Lee ended up getting stopped on his feet, and he was actually punching back as the ref waved it off, so it did look like a quick stoppage. It was likely inevitable that Lee was going down for good, but you never know.
Emanuel Steward is an interesting character. Since he has been an expert in the game for years and years now, and as the cliche goes, has forgotten more than most people have ever known, one questions him at the peril of being completely embarrassed. However, since he often holds a role as a broadcaster at the same time he acts as a trainer and manager, he might (not necessarily consciously) be a bit biased toward his guys. This, of course, is completely understandable. A good trainer and manager should be behind his guys all the way. After watching Lee last night though, it doesn't look like he is ready for Pavlik right now. Is Lee talented? Looks like it. Will he be the world champ someday? Almost definitely, which is a great accomplishment. It just doesn't seem necessary to hype him up so much so fast. But whatever. Lee will just have to wait a bit longer, and Pavlik will be out of the division by then anyway. In the meantime, it bears mentioning that Lee and Jermain Taylor are two fighters that Steward trained and may have slighly overestimated. Kermit Cintron has been moved aggressively by Steward as well, and one wonders if these other outcomes will have any bearing on Cintron's fight with Margarito.
Lee and Vera are moving to a rematch, and Uatu predicts Lee will get the KO in that fight.
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2 comments:
How does this fight have any bearing once so every with Kermit Cintron's upcoming fight against Margarito? It will be Kermit Cintron in the ring April 12th...not Andy Lee and not Jermain Taylor. Kermit Cintron is ready to roll and will beat Margarito. Is this in part because of Steward...yes! But, the main reason Cintron will win is because "HE" has taken total responsibility for his career and future. He has a new team and has himself ready to go this time. Just because they have the same trainer...it's unfair to lump things together. Cintron wasn't ready in 05 and now he is. He also has a better trainer in his corner so yes...that will help!
You are correct. It is a bit of a leap to say just because Andy Lee lost and Jermain Taylor lost his first fight to Pavlik that Kermit Cintron will then lose to Margarito. They probably have nothing to do with each other. It's just that Steward's confidence in him doesn't appear to be an indicator of how things will turn out. He may or may not pull it off. But in the past such a strong conviction from Steward would look like more of a sure thing than it is now.
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