Photo by: Naoki Fukuda

While some fighters take tune-ups in the hopes of preserving their standing and landing a big fight, Andy Lee takes a different approach.

Inactive since losing a majority decision to Billy Joe Saunders last December, Lee doesn’t have anything lined up for the foreseeable future. He’s not retired. Still just 32, Lee is waiting for a meaningful fight to pique his interest to induce him to come back, according to promoter Lou DiBella.

“Andy will come back for a major fight at 160 or 168,” DiBella told RingTV.com. “He would come back for the winner of (James) DeGale and Badou Jack (on Jan. 14 in a super middleweight unification bout.) He would come back to fight Andre Dirrell. But Andy is not interested at this stage of his career in a keep-busy fight for $15,000, $20,000. He knows he can fight. He knows when he goes to camp he can make a big fight and he’s waiting for a big fight. He’s not interested just to jump back into the ring.”

A number of big-name opponents that Lee would be open to facing are tied up, such as Gennady Golovkin and Danny Jacobs, who are still trying to come to terms on a deal to meet in 2017. As for Canelo Alvarez, who is likely moving up to middleweight soon, Alvarez probably wouldn’t take the plunge and face an unpredictable, devastating puncher such as Lee at this point. “It’s a matter of timing and certain things breaking the right way,” DiBella said.

Ireland’s Lee (34-3-1, 24 knockouts) won a vacant middleweight title with a come-from-behind, sixth-round stoppage of previously undefeated Matt Korobov in 2014. He faced Peter Quillin in April of last year and fought to draw. But he lost the belt against Saunders last Dec. 19, rising from a pair of knockdowns to drop a majority decision.

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