‘We wrote off the Rolls-Royce’… Andy Lee reveals details of crazy car crash with Emmanuel Steward

EXCLUSIVE: Andy Lee and Emmanuel Steward were involved in a dramatic car crash that destroyed a Rolls-Royce.

For many years, the Irishman honed his craft at the famous Kronk Gym in Detroit, Michigan, USA, under the tutelage of one of the greatest trainers of all time. Now, he’s passing down that wisdom to his own fighters, including Paddy Donovan, who’s just picked up a huge victory against Karen Chukhadzhian at Ringside Zone’s boxing show at the SAP Arena in Mannheim, Germany.

Andy Lee and Emmanuel Steward were involved in a Rolls-Royce car crash

Andy Lee didn’t just make memories with Emmanuel Steward through boxing. On one occasion, the pair avoided a near disaster that sticks with the power puncher to this day.

In an exclusive interview with Sporf, the former WBO middleweight world champion reminisced: “That’s a legendary story. Emmanuel had a Rolls-Royce Corniche. It was candy-apple red with gangster white-wall tyres. He sent it to Arizona to be fixed up, and he got it all done, brand new. The car came back, and I spent all day cleaning the car. I polished it to within an inch of its life. Emmanuel said, ‘When you get back from the gym, we’ll go for a steak’. We took the car out, the tyres were perforated, we got a blowout, and the car spun out of control on the Southfield Freeway in Detroit. We careened into a barricade and we wrote off the Rolls-Royce. We went back to the house a little bit shaken up, jumped in Emmanuel’s other car, and still went for a steak.”

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Andy Lee claims Paddy Donovan will be a world champion

Having come agonisingly close to beating Lewis Crocker on two occasions, Donovan was nothing short of thrilled to overcome Chukhadzhian in an IBF welterweight world title eliminator, to unlock a third crack at his rival.

Lee adores his fighter, with whom he’s spent many a cold morning in Ireland training, believing wholeheartedly that his countryman has the ability to scale the boxing mountain.

The 41-year-old reminisced: “It’s amazing. The whole reason I started coaching is because of Paddy Donovan—the talent he has and the person he is. I decided I had to train this guy and help him fulfill his potential. We’ve been through so much together and stuck by each other. Loyalty is a great thing. I think of him as a friend and a son — I’m very protective of him. We’ve come a long way, and we still have a long way to go. He’s got a lot to improve on, and so have I as a coach. We’re going to get there, we’re going to finish this thing off together, he’s going to be a world champion.”

Featured Image Credit: Sky Sports/James Sweetnam