Irish middleweight Andy Lee kept his unbeaten record intact with a sixth round stoppage of American Arthuro Ortega in Las Vegas last night.
The Limerick southpaw took all five rounds before the referee stepped in and stopped the contest midway through the sixth at the Orleans Hotel & Casino.
Ortega, 29, from Phoenix, Arizona, had won 12 and drawn three of his 17 fights ahead of last night’s contest and was being tipped to ask some serious questions of the 2004 Irish Olympian.
But 22-year-old Lee was in top form to record his third victory in Vegas, and his seventh win in total since he signed a professional contract with the Detroit Kronk last March.
Lee's renowned coach and manager Emanuel Steward reckoned that last night's win was one of his Lee's most impressive so far.
He said: 'Ortega has never been stopped before and Andy was in control throughout the fight and it was a very impressive display.'
Speaking after the fight, Lee, who was at ringside with Las Vegas-based Wayne McCullough, said he was delighted to get 2007 off to a winning start.
Lee admitted: 'He was a tough customer and it took a while to break him down but I kept racking up the points and I finally began to break through in the fifth.
'I thought the ref was going to stop it in the fifth to tell the truth, but he did stop it in the sixth and I'm delighted to get the year off to a winning start.'
Lee will now go into training camp with world champ Wladimir Klitschko in Majorca Spain.
The Limerick man is due to appear with fellow Irish middleweight John Duddy (in separate bouts) on the 'Erin Go Brawl' Irish Ropes promotion at Madison Square Garden in New York on 16 March.
