by David P. Greisman

BROOKLYN, NEW YORK — It looked early on as if Andy Lee wouldn’t last long. But he rose from a first-round knockdown, battled back, floored Peter Quillin himself and left with a split draw in what was originally scheduled to be a defense of Lee’s world title but ultimately was a non-title bout.

What had been a tense but tentative opening round exploded toward the end. Quillin and Lee had been waiting for the right opportunities for individual leads or well-timed counters, and Quillin was first to capitalize on one such opening — he ducked forward and sent an overhand right that landed flush and dropped Lee hard.

Lee rose and Quillin appeared to be letting him off the hook. But then Quillin threw a few shots just as the round ended, including a left hook that landed after the bell and looked to shake Lee again. Lee had been propped up by the corner, but the referee rightly decided against ruling it a knockdown.

“He dropped me in the beginning because I was being lazy,” Lee said. “I got my momentum late in the fight. I boxed consistently.”

Quillin led much of the action as the second round began, with Lee reasonably cautious. Later, Lee landed a left hand but got caught with a hard three-punch combination in return. Lee suffered a cut over his left eye at some point in the round.

Quillin hurt Lee again early in the third, landing a right hand that sent Lee back a few steps. Soon, a right hand lead came from Quillin and Lee was down again, though Lee complained that their feet had been tied up.

The action slowed down for a bit. Quillin continued to mix in occasional solid blows with missed home run swings, including a big left hook that whiffed at the end of the fifth. Lee continued to look for the right hook counter that won him past two bouts, against John Jackson and Matt Korobov, and found success in the sixth.

Doctors checked on Lee’s cut at the start of the seventh and allowed the bout to continue. That was good for Lee, who was able to score a knockdown of his own that round. After landing left hands and a counter right at various points, he led with a left cross, then took a step back as Quillin came forward with a right of his own. Lee’s counter right hook landed and Quillin went down on all fours, quickly getting back up.

“There’s a first time for everything,” Quillin said afterward. “If I was going to get dropped, I’m thankful I was able to get back up.”

That knockdown proved to be the difference between the split draw and Lee losing. The official scorecards were 113-112 for Lee, 113-112 for Quillin, and an even 113-113.

“I understand with two knockdowns that people felt that he won the decision,” Lee said afterward. “I could’ve done better tonight. If my next fight is Peter Quillin, so be it. And it should be in Ireland because he has an Irish last name — and maybe he can find some ancestors there.”

CompuBox saw a close fight statistically, though of course statistics aren’t how judges score the fight. Quillin was credited with going 103 of 267, a 39 percent connect rate, while Lee was 113 of 299, or 38 percent. Quillin was 24 of 122 with jabs (20 percent), while Lee was 37 of 134 (28 percent). Quillin was a highly accurate 79 of 145 with power punchers (54 percent), while Lee was also landing with power often at 76 of 165 (48 percent).

Quillin wouldn’t have been able to win the belt had the scorecards gone his way anyway. He had come in overweight, first stepping on the scales at 161.4 pounds, then turning up at 160.6 pounds on his final attempt 90 minutes later. The World Boxing Organization belt had once been his, won in a six-knockdown thriller over Hassan N’Dam back in October 2012 and defended successfully three times.

It was Quillin’s first fight in nearly a year, since he outpointed Lukas Konecny in April 2014. Quillin vacated the title last year, citing several reasons when many believed it was because of who had won the purse bid to put on the bout between him and Korobov. The winner was Jay-Z’s Roc Nation Sports, and the rapper’s famous pop star wife, Beyonce, had sued Quillin’s adviser, Al Haymon, years ago. Roc Nation also represented a potential promotional rival. Quillin most recently has said that he took time off to be with his newborn son and with a family member who was dying of cancer.

Lee wound up fighting Korobov and stopped him. This draw with Quillin moves the 30-year-old from Limerick, Ireland, to 34-2-1 with with 24 KOs. His two losses came via a pair of seventh-round technical knockouts: one against Bryan Vera in 2008, later avenged, and one against Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. in 2012.

Quillin, 31, of Brooklyn, New York, is now 31-0-1 with 22 KOs.

Pick up a copy of David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsamazon or internationally at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsworldwide. Send questions/comments via email at fightingwords1@gmail.com