By T.K. Stewart

First 'The Contender' reality show participant Brian Vera stopped him in a colossal upset. Then, in his first fight back from the Vera debacle, he suffered a nasty gash from a clash of heads with Willie Gibbs before stopping Gibbs in the 10th round.

Now, Limerick, Ireland's Andy Lee may have to wait even longer before he steps into the ring once again. The 24 year-old Emanuel Steward trained middleweight is recovering from surgery to repair excessive scar tissue over his right eye.

Lee, 16-1 (13KOs) had been cut over the right eye in the past but a clash of heads against Willie Gibbs in their July match made what was already beginning to be a recurring problem - worse.

As a result, Lee and his braintrust figured it was best to repair the scar tissue now rather than have to deal with it later on.

The hope was to have Lee make his return to the ring on the undercard of Wladimir Klitschko vs. Alexandre Povetkin on December 13th in Germany. However, with that fight now postponed and with an opponent for Klitschko uncertain, the immediate future for the young southpaw is up in the air.

Lee, who trains out of Detroit under the watchful eye of Emanuel Steward, had surgery in Los Angeles to repair the eye several weeks ago. He recently began gym workouts in an effort to get back into fighting shape and get ready for what he thought was going to be a fight on the Klitschko undercard.

If Lee doesn't land a spot on the Klitschko undercard the plan may be to sit out and return in 2009.

Emanuel Steward once claimed that Lee had the goods to beat both Winky Wright and Kelly Pavlik but then Lee suffered the upset loss to the unheralded Vera and looked less than spectacular against Willie Gibbs.

Whatever the case, Steward still seems to stand by his previous comments and still feels that the immediate future for Lee will involve a match against a top rated name and then a title fight.

"It's still safe to say that Andy is heading for a world title shot," said Steward. "I've always believed that, and I still do, despite what happened in his loss to Brian Vera. The goal is to fight a top contender, probably in February. By May, I'd like to see him in a title fight. I'd also like to see him fight again in Ireland."

I spoke to Lee the night he lost to Vera at the Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, Connecticut back in March. He told me then that, "I should've been more careful and I should've been more serious. Because I didn't do that, I lost. Brian showed up here tonight in the best shape of his life and he lured me into brawling with him. I won't make the same mistakes again."

It's not clear who Lee may fight next. But from what I hear, one of the names being tossed around for an Ireland fight in February is none other than "The Battersea Bomber" himself, Howard Eastman, who posted a twelve round split-decision win over Andrew "Six Heads" Lewis last weekend in Guyana.

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