By Elliot Foster
Andy Lee will make his return to the ring after fifteen months out with a fight against a relatively unheralded American.
The Limerick southpaw has been out of the ring since losing his WBO world middleweight title to Billy Joe Saunders on points back in December 2015.
But the 32-year-old (34-3-1, 24 KOs) will make his return on a world title undercard next month.
Lee is set for action over eight rounds on the same bill as Gennady Golovkin’s WBA Super, IBF, IBO and WBC world middleweight title defence against mandatory challenger Danny Jacobs on March 18 at Madison Square Garden in New York.
The main event will be aired exclusively live on HBO in the States, but Lee will face 28-year-old KeAndrae Leatherwood (19-3-1, 12 KOs), of Birmingham, Alabama before the pay-per-view portion of the bill begins.
Leatherwood was stopped by John Jackson –– a man who Lee scored a stunning come-from-behind knockout win over at the venue of his return back in 2014 –– in a super-welterweight contest for the WBC Youth title in 2011.
He was also comprehensively outpointed by Hugo Centeno Jr. in his only other major fight, but comes into this bout on the back of a five-fight winning streak.
Also on the card, Ryan Martin defends his WBC Continental Americas lightweight title against Bryant Cruz, Carlos Cuadras faces David Carmona over 10 rounds and Roman Gonzalez defends his WBC super-flyweight world title, which he won against the aforementioned Cuadras last year, against Srisaket Sor Rungvisai.
