By Ian S Palmer
Contender Andy Lee of Ireland takes on John Jackson of the U.S. Virgin Islands in a 10-round junior middleweight bout for the vacant NABF Championship on the undercard of the Sergio Martinez vs Miguel Cotto WBC Middleweight showdown at New York’s Madison Square Garden on Saturday, June 7. The fights can be seen on HBO pay-per-view in the USA and on pay-per-view in Canada. Fans in the UK can check out all the action on BoxNation.
The 29-year-old southpaw Lee comes into this fight ranked number six in the world in the middleweight division by the WBC,10 by the WBO, 11 by the WBA and 14th by the IBF. He’s climbing through the ropes with a record of 32-2, along with 22 Kos. The 25-year-old Jackson is the son of former middleweight heavy-hitter Julian Jackson and has a mark of 18-1 with 15 Kos. By the looks of his record it appears that Jackson has inherited some of his father’s power.
A loss for the 6-foot-2-inch Lee will probably knock him down the rankings all the way out of the top 20, so it’s imperative for his career to make sure he isn’t beaten. Jackson is going to be a tough test for him since he possesses good hand speed to go along with his power. While Jackson is a heavy hitter he can also box as he proved in his controversial 10-round loss to Willie Nelson back in 2012. That has been his only pro defeat and Jackson’s reeled off five wins in a row since then against the likes of Alexis Pena, Jorge Daniel Miranda, Alexander Hernandez, Cerresso Fort, and Tony Hirsch.
Lee was once touted as a future world champion, but he’s never really been the same since former middleweight king Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. stopped him in the seventh round in 2012. Lee has still managed to win all four of his contests since then, but there’s definitely something missing. He struggled against the relatively unknown Frank Haroche Horta in his last outing and scraped by with an eight-round majority decision. Lee also has good power, but it may not be wise to get into a firefight with Jackson from the get-go.
But then again, if Lee doesn’t go out to try to end this fight quickly he’s going to eat some leather somewhere down the line and it could be lights out for him. Since Lee’s moving down six pounds to the junior middleweight division against Jackson his punches may carry some extra weight.
Prediction
Both of Lee’s losses have been by Ko as Brian Vera also stopped him in the seventh round back in 2008. While he has an edge in experience and two inches in height over Jackson, he just doesn’t have the whiskers to withstand shots from power-punching opponents, and that’s basically what Jackson is at this stage in his career. This is a huge opportunity for Jackson to make a bit of a name for himself and he’s likely going to take advantage of it by stopping Lee to take the vacant title.
