Video: Andy Lee no match for Chavez in El Paso

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IveFQ6JaEDg

Ireland’s Andy Lee was no match for Julio Cesar Chavez Junior in El Paso last night, as the Mexican retained his WBC middleweight title with a stoppage in the seventh round.

The Lee camp had high hopes heading into last night’s bout, but he was always going to be up against it against a man who is now undefeated in 48 fights and has retained his title three times.

Limerick man Lee actually began the fight well and was on top in the opening rounds before Chavez eventually imposed himself and Lee was in serious trouble before the referee stopped the fight after a barrage of punches from Chavez in the seventh round.

There had been some bad blood between the rival camps after a bizarre incident at the weigh-in on Friday and that continued into the fight with Chavez openly taunting Lee during the fifth round.

Lee had no qualms afterwards, however, and admitted that Chavez was too much to handle.

"I couldn't hold him off," Lee said afterwards.

"He was too big and too strong."

The defeat was only Lee’s second in 30 fights and he is bound to come back strong again while Chavez will now look ahead to a much-anticipated title-unification bout with Sergio Martinez, who defeated our own Matthew Macklin in Madison Square Garden back in March.

Check out the final round of the Lee-Chavez bout for yourself in the video above.