By Scott Gilfoid: After his impressive 7th round demolition job on #1 WBO Brian Rose (25-2-1, 7 KO’s) last Saturday night, WBO junior middleweight champion Demetrius Andrade (21-0, 14 KO’s) sees himself as the best fighter in the 154-pound division bar none. With the way the 6’1” Andrade looked against Rose and his previous opponent Vanes Martirosyan, it’s hard to disagree that Andrade isn’t the best guy in the division.
Erislandy Lara, the WBA junior middleweight champ, is seen by many boxing fans to be the best fighter in the 154lb division, but Andrade did a better job of beating Martirosyan than Lara did, and that kind of tells you that Andrade could be No.1.
“I’m the best in the world,” Andrade said to Dan Rafael of ESPN. “I was taking my time and my power was affecting him [Rose]. I took Round 5 off to see the openings, the sixth round I picked it up, and the seventh round he had to go.”
The southpaw Andrade knocked Rose down with a single left hand bomb in the 1st round. How Rose ever got up from that shot, I have no clue, because most fighters would have been finished for the night after eating a punch like that. Two rounds later, Andrade landed a beautiful right hook that had Rose out on his feet in Ricky Hatton fashion, as Rose’s forward momentum sent his limp body into Andrade, and he then slid down on the in a pile of flesh.
Although looking very hurt, Rose somehow willed himself off the canvas and was able to finish out the 3rd round without getting dropped again. It looked like Andrade took it easy on Rose after the knockdown, because he could have really jumped on him if he had wanted to, but instead he let him survive almost like a cat playing with its prey before eating it.
In rounds 4th through 6th, Andrade landed some beautiful left hands to the head of Rose that were thrown with perfect form and with huge, huge power. It reminded me of watching a combination of Tommy Hearns and Julian Jackson with the way that Andrade was able to use his tall frame to get everything he had into each shot he threw.
The leverage that Andrade showed was incredible, and the power was unmistakable. You only had to listen to the loud thumps from each of his blows to know that he was punching with massive power. You could also see how Rose’s face was changing with each shot that Andrade landed in the fight.
Rose, 29, was pouring on the compliments afterwards, saying “He [Andrade] was better than I thought he would be. He may be one of the best out there in the game. I just couldn’t keep up with him and I couldn’t keep him off of me.”
Comments are closed.