Fresh from his Madison Square Garden comeback, Andy Lee appeared alongside Declan Lynch to review the Sunday Papers on Newstalk's Off the Ball this morning. Among the topics up for discussion was Katie Taylor's fourth professional fight, in which she coasted to a victory over Bulgaria's Milena Koleva on the undercard of Linares/Crolla.
Speaking of what was next for Taylor, and exactly how successful she will be in the pro ranks, host Joe Molloy pondered exactly how prominent Taylor was in the minds of those in the crowd. Lee responded by skewering Sky's coverage:
JM: The commentator on Sky last night said 'Listen to the roar for Taylor'...I didn't hear any roar. I would have said it's an uninterested crowd, to be honest. We could overestimate the extent to which she has captured the public imagination based on what the TV commentary are saying.
AL: People are certainly aware of her now. But the people who go to these fights in England, they're not boxing fans, they are Sky Sports promotional fans. They just go to event; event fans. Half of them wouldn't know what they are watching. That's why the Sky commentary, to me, has been so damaging.
They are so biased toward the home fighters, and everytime you watch a Sky boxing show, they call the fight wrong. Because they are so biased toward the home fighters, to their guys. They got one wrong again last night, they do it all the time.
I think Tony Bellew, in his unpolished way, says a lot of the right things. But the rest of them are singing from the same hymn sheet.
Undoubtedly, Lee rates Taylor very highly. He said on air that Taylor was the "best fighter on the entire of the Haye/Bellew card. The display she put on was the best thing about the whole night".
This might be construed as damning with faint praise somewhat, as he didn't think much of the Haye/Bellew match-up:
I think we've reached peak trash talk. The Haye/Bellew stuff was unlike anything we'd seen before...it was an insult to the sport. And the fight itself was a farce.
Lee added that he has zero interest in engaging in such false nonsense, making the admission that his fight with Billy Joe Saunders might have been more successful had Saunders been willing to create some. He couldn't, however, as it would have been utterly false:
I've never engaged in any of the trash talk. I never have [come under pressure to do so]. Say with my fight with Billy Joe Saunders, it probably would have helped the fight, and it probably would have helped me, if he had said something. But we were just so respectful of one another. It has to come across as natural, as organic. When it's not real, everyone can see through it.
You can listen to the full slot on the Newstalk website.
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