Former middleweight world champion Andy Lee is set to announce his retirement from boxing.
First reported by Off The Ball, Lee will call it a career after fighting professionally since 2006. After only fighting once win the past couple of years, Lee said he has done everything he wanted as a boxer and that there wasn't anything available that would bring him back to the sport.
"I've actually achieved everything I wanted to in the game. I've had an amazing career and an amazing life through boxing. It's defined my life. I kept myself available to see what my options were but none of the fights or none of the offers were big enough to get me to go back," Lee said.
Lee has held the NABF and WBA-NABA middleweight titles while also previously challenging for the WBC middleweight title. Lee lost to then-WBC champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. by TKO back in 2012 and it wouldn't be another two years before Lee would find himself back in the world championship picture. The Irishman has held the WBO middleweight title from 2014-2015 when he first won the then-vacant championship by defeating Matt Korobov by TKO.
Lee has only fought once since losing the WBO middleweight title to Billy Joe Saunders back in 2015, a unanimous decision win over KeAndrae Leatherwood at Madison Square Garden on the untelevised undercard of the Gennady Golovkin vs. Daniel Jacobs fight last March. It was previously rumored that Lee was one of the boxers previously considered to fight Daniel Jacobs next April in New York. Before retiring, Lee was ranked No. 5 in the WBC middleweight rankings and now leaves the sport with a 35-3-1 record.
