From the second that Lee’s theme tune ‘In the Air Tonight’ began to thunder around the arena, it was clear from the electric atmosphere that the Treaty City was about to witness a piece of boxing history.

Middleweight southpaw, Lee—who is the pride of the St Francis Boxing Club—won the hard-fought bout after he knocked Gibbs down in the tenth round in front of around 3,000 spectators.

In what seemed to be a cliché coming to life, a towel was dramatically thrown into the ring by the Gibbs support team with just 15 seconds on the clock as Lee rained punches on the Philadelphia native.

Exhausted and bleeding from cuts to his eye and forehead after the match, Andy Lee told reporters and the adoring crowd that he was “obviously delighted to be back. It was a tough fight, harder than I expected. Willie Gibbs put up a gallant fight”.

”He took most of my best shots and just kept coming back at me. I think he could have finished the fight but his corner were taking care of their fighter. The most important thing in boxing is to protect your guy. So I was very lucky to get the stoppage but it was a great fight and there was a lot of pressure on me, fighting in my own town in a main event on my comeback from a defeat,” he said.

He added that he was “relieved to have gotten through it. I’ll take a bit of time off, heal up and then take it from there. I just want to move on now”.

It was obvious to even the most ignorant spectator that Lee—trained by legendary trainer, Emanuel Steward—kept Gibbs at bay for the entire fight, appearing to win virtually every round on points.

Steward maintained that Lee is now on track for a title fight, possibly by the end of the year—a huge turnaround since his disappointing but misleading first defeat at the gloves of Brian Vera in March.

Adding to the sweetness of Lee’s resounding success was a win for Limerick heavyweight, Jamie Power, in his four-round bout against Sandris Tomson before the main event in the Ladbrokes Fight Night.

After stoking up the crowd by entering the ring in a Limerick GAA jersey, the Norwood Park native easily dispatched the Latvian boxer on points in his second match since going professional earlier this year.

Along with wins for the Limerick footballers and Limerick FC last weekend, Lee and Power’s performances cemented the reputation of the Shannonside as the region’s sporting capital.

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