Andy Lee gets old banger

Former European champion and world title challenger Mamadou Thiam has been confirmed as Andy Lee's next opponent for their headline clash on the Yanjing Fight Night at the University Sports Arena, Limerick on Saturday, May 15th. The Senegalese born fighter (way past his best now at 38) has a fearsome reputation as one of the sports biggest punchers with an incredible 43 of his 46 wins coming by KO and he will undoubtedly be looking to stretch that to 44 KO wins when he arrives in Limerick next month to derail Lee's European and world title ambitions.

 

Thiam was a quality operator in his day - but that was a long time ago.  He was iced in three by Felix Trinidad almost a decade ago.  More recently, he's boxed for some of the most ridiculous belts in the sport - the European Boxing Association (?), the Trans America Boxing (??), and, incredibly, the vacant Global Boxing Organisation Intercontinental title (WTF?!).  To make it worse, he lost all of them too.  He's won his last four though, finally picking up a piece of utter shite in the Global Boxing Council strap last September.  He can still tap though - all four of the wins have come by the quick route.

 

Promoter Brian Peters believes that Thiam could prove to be the final hurdle for Lee ahead of a possible challenge for Darren Barker's European title. “If Andy can get past Thiam then I believe that his next fight should be for the European title and I'd be very confident of bringing that fight to Limerick,” revealed Peters.

 

“Thiam cannot be overlooked though, he has a 94% KO ratio which is phenomenal and he also has all that top level experience so he is a real dangerman,” said Peters. “He is one of those guys who throws every punch with bad intentions. His record speaks for itself, he's a veteran of 54 fights and 50 of those have ended inside the distance so it's safe to say that this is a guy who rarely relies on the judges.

 

“He can punch equally as hard with both hands and he's been operating at a very high level throughout his career. He needed just two rounds to win the European title at Light Middleweight and he made five successful defences with all those wins coming by KO. Like a lot of big punchers he can be vulnerable himself but that all adds to the excitement,” continued Peters.

 

“For me throughout his career both in the amateur and professional ranks Andy has always performed at his best when he's been faced with a real threat and that's exactly what he will be coming up against in Thiam. Andy will need to be very careful but he's no slouch either in the power department so I think it's safe to say that it's a fight that will produce fireworks."

 

Thiam's globe trotting career has already seen him fight in ten countries (France, Guadeloupe, the U.S., Germany, Canada, Hungary, Denmark, Bosnia And Herzegovina, Croatia and Switzerland) and included six European title fights and two unsuccessful world title challenges at light-middleweight to boxing legend Felix Trinidad and Santiago Samaniego.

 

Lee is currently training for the bout in the U.S. and will have been a keen observer at the weekend as the WBC and WBO World Middleweight titles changed hands with Sergio Martinez's impressive points win over defending champion Kelly Pavlik.

 

Tickets priced €30, €40, €50, €60, €75 and €100 are available from Ticketmaster (phone 0818 719 300 or visit ticketmaster.ie) and all usual outlets.