Headline News

Andy Lee ready to answer Danny Jacobs call


Andy Lee [35(24)-3(2)-1] has got the call.

The former WBO middleweight champion is in the picture to take on two-time title challenger and big American name Danny Jacobs this Spring.

The Matchroom USA fighter headlines a card at the Barclays Centre in his native Brooklyn, and Lee is hopeful that he will be the man to man the opposite corner as he rolls the world title dice one more time.

Jacobs and promoter Eddie Hearn had been in talks with Lee’s fellow Munster man Spike O’Sullivan, however that proposed match-up looks to have cooled, with manager Keith Connolly warning the Cork boxer’s team about excessive demands and Hearn noting “politics” as a stumbling block to making this preferred match-up.

With O’Sullivan potentially moving out of consideration, further contact has been made with long-mooted opponent Lee – and the 33-year-old is keen to answer the call

Since losing his world title to Billy Joe Saunders back in December 2015, Lee has fought just once, a ticking-over win against KeAndrae Leatherwood in March – on a bill topped by Jacobs’s narrow loss to Kazakh KO king and WBC/WBA/IBF champ Gennady Golovkin.

The Limerick southpaw, who trained Eric Donovan for the Kildare boxer’s most recent win, was on Newstalk 106FM’s Off The Ball and explained how “it’s been mentioned a few times – even last year, as early as October of last year – that potentially a fight with Danny Jacobs could be in the offing this year around April-time this year.”

“I was under the assumption that it was going to be Spike O’Sullivan who would fight him. It seemed like they were in talks and it seemed like both sides were up for it.

“But last night [Monday], I got a text from [trainer/manager] Adam Booth just saying he has had contact from Edde Hearn and there’s a possibility to fight Danny Jacobs, would I be interested?”

“Of course, I said ‘yes’, and that’s where it is, there’s nothing more than that. I wouldn’t have mentioned it, only for Eddie Hearn mentioning it today in an interview.”

“I let them know I want the fight, let’s get it on.”

dpg

Joe O'Neill

Reporting on Irish boxing the past five years. Work has appeared on irish-boxing.com, Boxing News, the42.ie, and local and national media. Provide live ringside updates, occasional interviews, and special features on the future of Irish boxing. email: joneill6@tcd.ie

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