By Andy Lee

For the people who came to the arena at the University of Limerick a couple of weeks ago and wanted to see a tear-up, I'm sure it was a bit disappointing for them. They probably would like to have seen a few more rounds. There was a very big crowd there and it was a shame they didn’t get to see more of a fight.

It was stopped at the end of the second round and I was close to knocking Thiam out anyway at that stage. Even if he hadn’t been injured, I think it would only have gone on a round or two more.

But anything can happen in the ring. One punch can change it so, personally, I was happy to get it over with early. I’ve had plenty of rough fights so it was nice to get a victory without much fuss. Obviously I would have liked to have stopped him myself but I’ll take it whatever way it comes.

Game-plan

I knew from the start that Thiam was a fighter who swings a lot of wide, round punches. But I knew his balance wasn’t very good and that he puts everything into every punch, so if I could make him miss he’d be off-balance. The plan was to wait for him to throw a punch and when he did, to take a step back, let him false step and lose his balance, and then counter him.

That’s what I did and I think it discouraged him very early on. He wasn’t able to land any blows and he took a few heavy shots himself. If he wasn’t injured, then hitting him in the head and making him fall over would have helped him to make a decision to call it quits.

Marty Morrissey was doing the intros. It was the first time I’d had a fight with him and it was going on for a long time. All in all, between the introductions, my entrance and the anthems, it was about 15 minutes. All that time Thiam was standing still in his corner. He didn’t warm up or stay warm or shadow-box.

Roger, my brother, was telling me, “Stay warm, Andy,” so I bounced around and moved my arms and shadow-boxed the whole way through to keep my body temperature up. When Thiam didn’t warm up in the ring I said to myself, “this guy’s gonna be cold”. Everyone’s heard the expression ‘caught cold’. Usually if you’re cold and you get hit you get knocked out easily. He didn’t get knocked out but I’d say it definitely contributed to his injury.

I took a bit of time off for ten days or so after the fight. Just relaxing. It was nice to be home so I didn’t leave the house much. My sisters were there and it was good to see all the children. But that was pretty much it – just relaxing, taking it easy and not doing much.

I went out at the weekend just to blow off a bit of steam. I’m lucky enough when I’m out and about. If anyone comes up to me it’s usually with good words, for a bit of a chat and that’s about it. I’ve never really had any nastiness. You might expect it when you’re in this game, but it’s usually just for photos or a bit of a chat about the fights. Sometimes you get fellas talking their head off all night about boxing and the last thing you might want to talk about is boxing! But that’s alright too.

I’m back in the gym in New York, just ticking over until I get word. I’ll do a regular workout, just my exercises, some bagwork, a little bit of running. I mightn’t do as much sparring and training wouldn’t be as intense as it gets once a fight is lined up.

I know some boxers pile on the weight between fights but I’m lucky – I don’t bloat up too much. I usually stay within 12 lbs of my weight division which might sound like a lot but it’s not a lot for boxers. Some people might go over 30, 40 lbs sometimes. It can be tight getting the last couple of pounds off but that’s the way it is for everybody in boxing.

My manager Emanuel Steward is already talking about trying to organise the next fight. He’s talking to a few fellas so I’ll see what happens.

I think I’m ready for a European title fight now. The champion is a guy from England called Darren Barker, but I think I can beat him so I’d like to get the chance to fight him.

If Brian Peters is able to make a match I’ll go ahead with it but I’m not going to hang around waiting for it. I’m just going to keep fighting until I get a title fight. If it comes up soon, well and good. If it doesn’t, I’ll still move on with my career.