by T.K. Stewart

A couple of years ago, Hall of Fame trainer Emanuel Steward was telling anybody with ears that his latest protege, Irish middleweight Andy Lee, was soon to be the future of the 160-pound division.

Steward claimed that Lee had unlimited potential and that his punching power was crippling. He even went so far as to make the incredulous statement after Lee's 15th professional fight that, "He would beat Winky Wright and I'd match him with Winky right now."

But a peculiar thing happened on the road to Steward's predictions of superstardom. Lee was brutally dispatched in the seventh round of a colossal upset loss to the unsung Brian Vera.

To be fair, Lee entered the ring that night at the Mohegan Sun under the influence of the flu virus or some other malaise. But that was of little consolation to Steward, who seemed embarrassed by the slow meltdown of his charge. It didn’t help that the fight also happened to be beamed live by ESPN2 to a surprised television viewing audience.

After the shocking turn of events that night in Connecticut, try as he might, Steward was unable to mask his disappointment. He came to the painful realization that the fighter who he figured was a sure bet to someday win it all – went bust in front of his very eyes.

No longer was Lee the most promising middleweight prospect in the sport; he wasn't even the most promising 160-pound prospect from Ireland. John Duddy and Craig McEwan [from Scotland but popular in Ireland] possessed a more solid claim to that title. It also didn't help that McEwan would later outclass Vera.

The apprentice southpaw that Steward proclaimed was one of the best prospects he had ever seen, that sparred with stablemate heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko, and whom Steward said would go on to surpass the feats of some of his former all-time great champions, was turned into a bloodied mess with a humiliating loss in only his 16th pro bout.

Steward realized what everyone else did; that no matter what Andy Lee was able to do in the future, everybody would remember the name Brian Vera and the fight would forever mar Lee's record.

In the 19 months since the loss to Vera, there has been a long and slow period of rebuilding for Lee. There have been four wins, but he suffered a very serious cut over his right eye that was sustained in his first fight back after the Vera loss, a 10th round stoppage win over Willie Gibbs.

The gash required 17 stitches to close as well as the work of a plastic surgeon. As a result, Lee was forced to the sidelines for eight long months. To add insult to injury, the cut was re-opened in the very first round of his next fight, a March win over Alexander Sipos. Since then, Lee has picked up two more wins over Olegs Fedotovs and Anthony Shuler.

So with the setbacks and injuries apparently behind him, Lee emerged last week at a press conference in Limerick, Ireland to officially announce that he will face off against reigning European Union and French champion Affif Belghecham on Nov. 14 in that city. For Lee, it will be a chance to move forward in the middleweight rankings and to re-board the fast track train to fulfilling Steward's once grandiose predictions.

"If I end up looking good in winning it will really put me back in the picture if I do a job on this guy," said the well-spoken, 25-year-old Lee. "That's the real motivation, you know, going out and beating him and maybe stopping him. He's never been stopped before and that would make a statement. He's definitely ahead of me in the ratings. Obviously if I beat him, I'm number fourteen now in the WBA, if I beat him I probably move near the top ten. It's definitely a step in the right direction. It's not like I'm fighting a guy who is way down with a built up record. He's tough, a seasoned-pro and I'll have to be at my best."

Lee arrived in New York City earlier this week and will train under the tutelage of Steward assistant and former world champion Joey Gamache. The Kronk wizard will not be in the corner as he has broadcast duties with HBO for the Manny Pacquiao – Miguel Cotto bout on the same night in Las Vegas.

"I'm going to train with Joey," says Lee. "Training has been going well before now and I'm going to get lots of quality sparring in New York. There is no shortage of good sparring there. I'm supposed to spar with Yuri Foreman, the Jewish boxer who is due to fight Daniel Santos. I'll be sparring with Joe Greene, who is a southpaw the same as my opponent."

Should Lee make it by Belghecham, whom he describes as "a tough fighter" there are standing offers from his promoter, Brian Peters, to fellow Irishman John Duddy and to Vera for a rematch. But Peters claims Duddy was not overly interested in an all-Irish showdown and that Vera is having managerial issues, thus leaving them with the fight against the unknown Frenchman.

Lee is still young, so he has the opportunity to reset his place in the world of young contenders. The best case scenario is to of course secure an impressive victory over Belghecham. The plan for next year is to build on this year's momentum and move into a high-profile fight with Duddy or British middleweight champion Matthew Macklin. But none of that is a certainty and anything having to do with Andy Lee’s future plans is contingent upon him winning every fight from here on in.

So for Andy Lee, there is only one certainty; it's a long road back when the next big thing goes bust.

In the Corners

Say what you will about Kelly Pavlik's fight against Paul Williams being called off yet again due to a recurrent staph infection on Pavlik's left hand. I'm as disappointed as you are. However, a quick Google search of "staph infection" shows that the condition can lead to a host of other serious medical problems and that in some cases it can even result in death. Middleweight championship fights can wait and I say that Pavlik's trainer, Jack Loew, made the right call in immediately pulling his man out of training camp. Pavlik needs to get healthy and hopefully he will someday be able to move ahead with his boxing career...My feeling was that Carl Froch won comfortably against Andre Dirrell. I saw a contest (I hesitate to call it a fight) where Dirrell held, whined, complained to the referee and did everything he could to keep from getting hit. Dirrell was responsible for making the match a horrible one to watch and he should have been docked a point for holding much sooner than the 10th round. I feel that Dirrell did more than enough holding to warrant a disqualification and I see no scenario by which he did anywhere near enough to win...Everybody asks me and I don't know what to tell them in regards to whether Jermain Taylor should retire. I would never overstep my boundaries by telling a fighter to get out of the game. Taylor is a smart kid with a good support system around him from promoter Lou DiBella to trainer Ozell Nelson to his wife and family. I'm confident Jermain is quite capable of making the decision that will be right for him and I'm sure he will. It doesn't do any good for boxing writers and boxing fans to jump all over him and tell him what they think he should do. It's like that old saying: "If he wanted your opinion, he would’ve asked for it."

E-mail: tkstewartboxing@gmail.com