![]() I said ‘No, you must have jet lag.’ But he insisted, so I put him in with Cornelius Bundrage, who was then undefeated. ![]() The first time he’d flown from Ireland to Chicago, then to Detroit, and he wanted to spar. Manny explains: “I figured if he could beat Cubans and go to the Olympics coming from a small country like Ireland, there must be some talent there. I had to know who he was.”Īfter the Olympics, Manny offered Lee a contract, but had never seen him box. “And they said he’d lost to a tall, left-handed kid from Ireland. 1 across the weights in America at that time,” says Manny. It was the World Juniors, however, that brought the Limerick man to the attention of legendary trainer and manager Emanuel Steward. “It’s still my greatest amateur achievement.” “Representing Ireland in the Olympics was amazing,” says Andy. He defeated a Mexican in his first bout, then lost to a Cameroonian on countback in the last 16. He went on to win three Irish national titles, a European bronze in 2004, outpointing Darren Barker along the way, and then represented Ireland at the 2004 Athens Olympics. Andy took light-middle silver at the World Juniors, beating touted American Jesus Gonzales in the semis. Lee improved further, reaching the national junior finals at 16 before his breakthrough year in 2002. Without Shane Daley, who knows what might have happened?” It got better after that and they had more time for me. Then Shane Daley, a young, hungry new coach, came in. “There was a stage at St Francis where I wasn’t learning anymore and was becoming disillusioned. While Tommy, Ned (a quality amateur) and younger brother Roger fell away from the sport, Andy stuck with it, although did once have doubts. “Dad was great – he’d get back from work, have a cup of tea and a sandwich, then take us to the club. “But it convinced me that I didn’t want to do it my whole life – that motivated me in boxing. “The hard physical work made me strong,” says Lee. Then Andy joined Limerick’s St Francis ABC. First, he quit school (“I was never a scholar, it was great to leave”) and started to work with dad Tom as a landscape gardener. There’s a massive difference between London and a rural village in Ireland.” “It was like starting all over again, leaving my friends. We moved to Castleconnell, six miles out of Limerick. “You’re more patriotic when you’re away from it. “We always saw ourselves as Irish,” Andy explains. “From when I was a kid, they used to put gloves on me and teach me to shadow-box.”Īndy was a natural, going on to claim two national Schoolboy crowns, in 1998 and, despite Andy’s family moving back home later that year, 1999. “I followed them and loved it,” says the articulate southpaw. Andy’s family came from Ireland to set up home in Bow, close to where I grew up in Stepney.Īndy’s best memories of the capital all involve his first boxing club, Bethnal Green’s famous Repton, where older brothers Tommy and Ned boxed. Lee is a patriotic Irishman but spent the first 14 years of his life living in old London town. As Andy is good-looking, funny, charming and an incredibly gifted fighter, you could say the similarities end there. ANDY LEE and I were both born in the Royal London Hospital, Whitechapel.
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