BOXING NEWS: HALF AN hour after the conclusion of his 10-round set-to with Andy Lee, Affif Belghecham, having more or less sampled the full gamut of the Limerick boxer's arsenal, was asked what Lee needed to do to move on to the next level of his profession.

“He is a very good boxer,” replied the Frenchman. “But he needs to get . . . tougher.” Since it was fresh on his mind, we must assume that in this assessment Belghecham was referring to the last four or five minutes of Saturday night’s affray and not to the first eight rounds, in which Lee beat him from pillar to post, in the almost total absence of resistance from the French and European Union middleweight champion.

Between the crisp right jabs Lee aimed straight down the middle of Belghecham’s peekaboo defensive posture and the slamming lefthanded shots to the ribs that found their way around the cagelike posture with which the Frenchman sought to ward off a body attack, for most of the evening the only danger threatening Lee was sore hands.

To be sure, Belghecham’s posture during this interlude was so defensive that it was for the most part like hammering away at a turtle, but even the punches that didn’t land flush were exacting their toll, both on Belghecham’s body and on the scorecard. Lee had built up such a commanding lead late in the bout that by the time Belghecham tried to lure him into a brawl over the last round and a half, trainer Joey Gamache was wishing Andy had displayed even less toughness than he did.

Once Belghecham’s intentions had become clear late in the ninth, Lee opened the 10 intent on backpedalling his way out of danger for the final three minutes, but when Belghecham backed him into a corner, cutting off his means of escape, Lee stood his ground to land a solid right-left combination. The crowd at the Limerick University Arena yelped in delight and broke into a singsong Andy Lee! Andy Lee! Andy Lee! chant, and before you could say “Brian Vera” Lee was the one place he wasn’t supposed to go — which is to say, in a street fight.

“When I heard that it made me want to put on a good show for the crowd,” Lee acknowledged his foolishness.

A hard combination from Belghecham wobbled Lee, but he survived the round and in the waning seconds of the bout even did what he should have done a few minutes earlier when he wrapped Belghecham in an embrace. By the time Emile Tiedt was able to separate them, the bell had rung.

Lee easily carried the day, winning the fight 99-92 on Tiedt’s scorecard and 98-92 on ours, to run his record to 20-1. Belghecham, whose titles were not at stake in what was officially a super-middleweight contest, is now 19-4-1.

The boxer’s Belfast adviser Damien McCann seemed impatient with queries about the next step for Lee, who will presumably vault (at least) ahead of Belghecham in both the European and world rankings. “Let’s just enjoy this one for now,” said McCann.

Lee said that he would likely wait until after the holidays to chart his next step, but in his post-fight address did suggest that any decision would be taken only after consultation with longtime manager Emanuel Steward.

Steward was committed to be in Las Vegas as part of the television team for Manny Pacquiao’s victory over Miguel Cotto Saturday night, but the Detroit-based Hall of Fame trainer was not pleased to have been almost totally excluded from the preparations for the Limerick fight, as Lee trained in New York gyms under the supervision of Gamache.

It was a good night for the locals, as two other Limerick boxers preceded Lee into the winner’s circle. Featherweight Willie Casey (3-0) stopped Michael O’Gara (0-4) when Tiedt rescued the Yorkshireman (whose left eye was by then closed) 37 seconds into the sixth round, while Lee’s old St Francis team-mate, light-heavyweight Jamie Power (7-1), bounced back persuasively from his September loss to Michael Sweeney at the O22 to record a fifth-round TKO of Latvian Aleksandr Dunec (5-5-1).

Dunec appeared intent on quitting on at least two prior occasions – after a second-round inadvertent clash of heads left him bleeding above the left eye, and again in the fourth, when he simultaneously took a knee and spit out his mouthpiece.

Referee David Irving, who would have no alternative to declaring a technical draw had Dunec successfully withdrawn, did his best to ignore the Latvian’s pacifistic stance in the early going, but when a Power left to the body put Dunec down in the fifth, when the rule book could no longer save him, Irving immediately waved off the bout without a count.