Andy Lee is never out of a fight.
The Irish southpaw who captured the WBO middleweight championship in December came off the canvas twice on Saturday to salvage a split draw against Peter Quillin in a 12-round fight at Barclays Center.
Lee would have retained his title regardless of Saturday’s outcome – Quillin came in over the 160lb limit at Friday’s weigh-in – but the 30-year-old from Limerick managed to advance his reputation with yet another signature comeback from the brink.
Quillin (31-0-1, 22 KOs), who goes by the nickname Kid Chocolate, was in need of a good showing after a year that saw his own reputation come under fire. He’d fought only once in the past 533 days – a points win over someone named Lukas Konecny – and vacated the WBO middleweight title rather than face Matt Korobov for a career-high $1.4m purse, a move that drew criticism. (Instead, Lee fought Korobov and captured the vacant strap with a sixth-round knockout.)
Then came Saturday. From the opening bell, the 31-year-old Quillin looked like a fighter desperate to make a statement. After a feeling-out period, the Brooklynite connected with a heat-seeking overhand right that sent Lee clattering to the canvas. It was the perfect punch, and Lee barely made it out of the round, getting buzzed in a neutral corner a split second after the bell rang.
When the fight resumed, Quillin resisted the urge to rush in. He patiently stalked Lee into corners and got the better of the exchanges, opening a small cut by Lee’s left eye in the second. Quillin scored another official knockdown in the third, though Lee appealed his foot was stepped on – a suspicion the replay confirmed.
Yet Lee (34-2-1, 24 KOs), a one-time protégé of Emanuel Steward blessed with power in both hands and a track record of rallying from adversity, showed why he’s earned a reputation for in-ring escape jobs. He began hurting Quillin with short shots and scratched his way back on the scorecards. In the fifth, Lee raised his right glove and invited a momentarily passive Quillin in, drawing a vocal reaction from the crowd of 12,300. All the while it seemed Lee was trying to lure Quillin into exchanges to open opportunities for his right hook, but absorbing too much damage along the way.
Then came the seventh, when the right hand Lee had spent the first six rounds setting up connected and sent Quillin to the floor for the first time in 31 professional fights.
Suddenly in the deepest waters of his career, Quillin showed impressive composure and conditioning to rally down the stretch. Yet Lee made an impressive closing argument for himself, at one point wobbling Quillin with a right hand and stunning him in the middle of the ring with a left.
One judge scored it 113-112 to Lee, another 113-112 to Quillin, while a third had it 113-113. (The Guardian scored it 114-111 to Quillin.)
“I got dropped early because I was being lazy,” Lee said afterward, “but I got momentum late in the fight because I boxed consistently. I understand with two knockdowns people felt he won. The decision was fair. I could have done better tonight.”
While the immediate outlooks for both fighters were unclear, an immediate rematch would make sense – an idea Lee was more than receptive to.
“If I fight Peter Quillin next, so be it,” a glib Lee said. “But the fight should be in Ireland. He’s got an Irish last name, so he might find some ancestors there.”
