What it takes to be a champion

1:10

Andy Lee’s early steps towards becoming a champion boxer

• How his career path was a surprise to those around him
• The importance of “sticking with it”
• Always striving to win the next fight instead of aiming towards world championship

2:29

Writing the book “Fighter”

• The long and hard work of writing a book
• Working with a ghost writer
• Being newly retired and why this was the best moment to write this book

3:50

Andy’s Gypsy heritage

• How it defines and shapes who he is
• The advantages and disadvantages it offers

5:15

The shift to High Performance training in Irish boxing

• Gary Keegan’s role in professionalizing amateur sport
• The changes in lifestyle and mentality required of high performance athletes
• The previously neglected importance of mastering the technical nuances of boxing

7:29

Andy’s early training and first coaches

• His start at a prestigious London boxing school
• Having blind faith in your coach
• The different coaching styles of Billy Walsh and Gary Keegan

10:30

Getting the call from notorious coach Emanuel Steward

• Andy’s surprise when he got the call from Emanuel: “I thought it was a joke”

14:15

Andy’s Olympic career and the progress of Irish boxing

• His decision to remain at the amateur level and compete in the 2004 Olympics
• Andy was the only Irish fighter in the 2004 Olympics, but every following year those numbers went up

16:15

Moving up in the boxing world

• Making the switch from amateur to professional boxing
• Why staying at the amateur level longer helped him be more successful at the professional level

17:30

The skills honed in amateur boxing

• Mastering basic fundamentals
• Always adjusting to different opponents and different boxing styles

19:45

Emanuel Steward’s influence

• Andy’s time spent living with Emanuel’s family in Detroit
• His big influence on Andy’s life, both personal and professional
• What Andy learned by watching and commenting matches with Emanuel

22:25

The difference between Emanuel Steward’s and Adam Booth’s coaching styles

• Emanuel loved knockouts
• He encouraged fighting tall, using your jab, and setting up your opponent with tricks and feints
• Adam Booth’s approach was more based on raw power through conditioning

25:00

The Kronk gyms

• Andy’s introduction to the Kronk gym: sparring with Cornelius ‘K9’ Bundrage
• What it was like to share a gym with world champions
• Even when just watching from the sidelines, there was always something to learn at Kronk
• Sparring as the main focus of Kronk’s old training style

29:50

Working and training outside the gym

• Doing extra work to impress your coach and gain his approval

31:45

First professional fights

• Fighting on the road: the home arena advantage
• Dealing with local competitors who were also vying for Emanuel’s attention
• How Emanuel selected challenging fights for Andy

34:45

Early hype

• Andy was highlighted early as “one to watch”
• He won the super middleweight belt in 2007
• The recognition and hype happened too soon and he played fights he was unprepared for

37:00

Dealing with his 2008 defeat against Brian Vera

• In boxing, it is very difficult to recover from a loss
• Your confidence is affected: “Am I good enough to make it?”
• Andy learned that he just had to work harder and rededicate himself
• All the fame and all the accolades have to be taken “with a pinch of salt”

41:20

Other major fights

• His opportunity to avenge Vera in 2011
• The controversy around his 2012 loss to Chavezs

43:20

A new coach

• Andy’s coach Emanuel Steward passed away in 2012
• He sought out Adam Booth who offered a very different culture and training style
• Booth allowed him to acquire a new set of skills, including close-range boxing

46:16

World championship fight with Matt Korobov

• A fight that was years in the making
• The most complete and technical performance of his career
• Adam’s intense training and heavier workload prepared Andy for this fight

51:00

Strains in Andy’s relationship with Emanuel

• It is sometimes difficult to navigate the blurred lines between a relationship that is both personal and professional
• They both saw each other’s good and bad sides
• With Emanuel, there was much more good than badmy will get overheated

53:05

Adam Booth’s different coaching style

• Businesses and nation are underspending on R&DAdam’s style was more athletic, explosive and dynamic
• He was very different personality-wise from Emanuel
• Adam had great skills as a manager and negotiator

55:45

Sparring with Wladimir Klitschko

• Always a challenge, with Klitschko working hard and being heavier
• Very competitive, since there was always a crowd watching Klitschko spar

48:30

The personal impact of fighting for a living

• Doing it from a young age makes it second nature
• Feeling no fear
• Changing your mindset so that you can hurt someone that you have nothing against

57:00

59:30 The mental side of boxing

• The way to prepare for a fight is through training
• Thinking you will win is what makes you winThe country needs to provide well-educated, skilled people

1:00:00

Visualization

• Visualization happens unconsciously all the time
• The important thing is to be prepared and present in all scenarios, even if you haven’t imagined them
• In any stressful situation, we fall back on the familiar and comfortable
• Practice is what allows you to develop the ideal default mode

1:04:20

Nutrition and weight

• Moving up or down a weight class
• Re-hydration

1:06:30

Faith

• The guiding role of faith in Andy’s life
• Faith helped him believe in himself and his life’s purpose

1:08:10

The corner man

• The huge importance of the coach in the corner
• Their role as a psychologist who needs to know the fighter intimately and understand what he can give and take

1:11:20

The business of boxing

• The darker side of boxing at the lower levels
• The importance of finding people with good reputations who have earned your trust

1:13:15

The negative image of Irish boxing

• Despite a bad reputation, there is a resurgence of interest in boxing

1:14:45

Boxers to look out for

• TJ Doheny
• Michael Conlan
• Katie Taylor
• Ryan Burnett

1:16:45

Retirement

• Lots of things may go wrong but it will likely continue to growRetiring on his own terms, at a perfect time
• After a few losses, Andy realized that he couldn’t define himself as a boxer, so he developed other interests
• The discipline is not something you miss, but you do miss the training, the fighting and the camaraderie
• Andy’s wife Maud and her role in initiating Andy to more artistic pursuits.

1:20:40

Favourite boxers

• Technical, stylish boxers
• Roy Jones
• Ronald Winky Wright
• Thomas Hearns
• Sugar Ray Leonard
• Ray Robertson

1:22:56

Acting?

• Andy dabbled in acting, but he won’t be calling himself an actor anytime soon.