By Keith Idec

NEW YORK – It isn’t in Andy Lee’s nature to make bold knockout predictions or to say disparaging things about his opponents.

The only promises the mild-mannered Irishman made Thursday at a news conference in Manhattan were that he’ll take risks against Peter Quillin on Saturday night at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center and that they’ll produce a fan-friendly, entertaining middleweight title fight. Lee (34-2, 24 KOs) will make the first defense of the WBO 160-pound title he won by stopping Russia’s Matt Korobov (24-1, 14 KOs) on Dec. 13 in Las Vegas. Quillin (31-0, 22 KOs) will try to regain the middleweight title he gave up last summer, when he declined to make a mandatory defense against Korobov.

“Peter is offensive, which leaves openings,” Lee said. “He might be cautious for a while because both of us know that we might pay the price [for] being offensive. Eventually we’ll exchange and it will be explosive one way or the other.”

The 30-year-old Lee, though the defending champion, is about a 3-1 underdog entering a 12-round fight that’ll open NBC’s “Premier Boxing Champions” telecast on NBC at 8:30 p.m.ET/5:30 p.m. PT. The London resident isn’t at all deterred by those odds, nor the fact that he’ll fight in Quillin’s adopted hometown.

“I’m a southpaw puncher who can box and I’ve never been in a dull fight,” Lee said. “I have a never-say-die attitude and I’m not someone who is just going to go out there and play it safe. I’ll risk it all to win.”

Keith Idec covers boxing for The Record and Herald News, of Woodland Park, N.J., and BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.