Middleweight Andy Lee (25-1, 19 KOs) defeated Alex Bunema (31-8-2, 17 KOs) by unanimous decision Wednesday at the Donald Stephens Center in Rosemont, Illinois, and is now starting serious preparations for what could be his most important assignment to date.
 
“It looks like it will be Vera in the fall on HBO,” Lee told the Irish Voice last Thursday before heading home to Ireland last weekend for a well-earned break.
 
The fight has no date set, and how late in the fall it may come should decide if Limerick native Lee takes an early summer time fight or not. Lee will now take two weeks off in Ireland before he gets back to work.  Where he will resume training has not yet been decided.
 
He will either head back to Detroit or join up with trainer/manager Emanuel Steward at Wladimir Klitschko’s camp in Austria as he prepares for his fight against David Haye in Germany on July 5.  
 
There is a slight chance that Lee himself will fight on that undercard, but team Lee will also have to decide if the risk of getting a cut or picking up an injury that night rule him out of the big fall fight is worth it.
 
“That is the thing, you know. I will have to sit down with Emanuel and talk that out,” said Lee.
 
On Wednesday night in Chicago, Lee dominated his opponent, winning every round on all three judges’ scorecards.
 
“It’s hard to KO someone who is trying to survive. It was good to get a 10 round workout,” said Lee of the fight.
 
With the win, Lee won the vacant NABF and NABA middleweight titles.
 
“It is good to win these titles and have the belts around my waist,” he said.
 
Lee went on to say that Bunema tried to lure him into a brawl, but he stuck to using his reach and comfortably won the fight from range.
 
Contrary to some Internet reports, Lee also said that he had no issues making the weight at the weigh-in and was in excellent condition going into the fight.
 
On the undercard, light middleweight Henry Coyle (15-2, 10 KOs) beat Keith Collins (3-11) by TKO in round two.  Collins was on the canvas twice in the second stanza before the end came with 2:22 gone in the round.