THERE WAS NO time for Easter eggs last weekend, but Andy Lee is ready now to get stuck into some Chocolate.
Limerick’s world boxing champion says he has never felt so good ahead of his first title defence – and, he admits, “it’s almost a bit unnerving.”
Lee, 30, puts his WBO middleweight crown on the line against the undefeated Peter ‘Kid Chocolate’ Quillin in Brooklyn on Saturday night.
Bookies make him a 2/1 underdog to leave the Big Apple with the belt he won against Matt Korobov last December.
But Lee believes he’s much more relaxed than he was before he KOd the Russian to win the gold.
He said: “Before the Korobov fight I was spending a lot of time in my room and thinking about the fight, going over the fight, saying things to myself to build confidence, affirmations, things like that.
“I haven’t done it this time and I asked Adam [Booth, his trainer], ‘Do you think that’s good or bad?’ I haven’t felt the need to do it.
“He said it’s good because you don’t have to think any more — it’s just time to do it.
That’s all I have to do — walk out there and do what I’ve been doing every day in the gym. Adam says that people are what they consistently do, what they do all the time.
“For the last year I’ve been training very hard, performing very well every day in the gym. All I need is one more day on Saturday.”
A Brooklyn resident, Quillin (31-0) plans to walk the short distance to the Barclays Center on Saturday night before leaving with the belt.
“It could be a technical fight or it could be a firefight,” Lee said. “I think it will be a bit of both at times.
There will be moments when we look at each other, feel each other out, and then I think once we exchange it could be explosive.
“He has to be [pretty sure of himself] and so am I. We’ll see.”
– Audio courtesy of Live 95FM
