Demetrius Andrade stripped of his WBO 154lb title for failure to defend it for 13 months

By Boxing News - 07/31/2015 - Comments

andradeBy Jim Dower: Demetrius Andrade (21-0, 14 KOs) lost his WBO 154lb title on Friday when the World Boxing Organization stepped in and stripped him of the title for him failing to defend it in the past 13 months. Andrade last defended it in June of 2014, when he beat Brian Rose by a 7th round knockout.

Since then, Andrade had a chance to defend his title in December of 2014 when he was in negotiations for a fight against Jermell Charlo. However, Andrade pulled out of the negotiations due to the money not being good enough.

Recently, Andrade was hoping to get a fight against 40-year-old Anthony Mundine, but the WBO said that the fight couldn’t be made due to Mundine not being ranked in the WBO’s top 15.

It’s unclear what Andrade will do now that he’s lost his WBO title. He expressed interest recently in facing Gennady Golovkin, the WBA middleweight champion. It might be in Andrade’s best interest to move up in weight to try and get a fight against one of the middleweight champions. The junior middleweight division is a pretty dead division right now.

Floyd Mayweather Jr. holds two of the four titles in the 154lb weight class and he’s just sitting on the titles without defending them. Saul “Canelo” Alvarez is no longer fighting at 154. He’s fight at catch-weights of 155 at middleweight. Canelo isn’t going to fight someone dangerous like Andrade.

Erislandy Lara holds down the WBA junior middleweight title, but he doesn’t have a big name. Cornelius Bundrade is the IBF 154lb champion, but he’s not a real popular fighter either. Andrade would be better off moving up to 160 and going after one of the champions like Andy Lee, Golovkin nor Daniel Jacobs.

In hindsight, Andrade should have taken the fight with Charlo when he had it. Even though the money might not have been to his liking, at least he’d still be in the position where he’d have his WBO title if he won the fight.

Rocky Martinez vs. Orlando Salido possible for Mayweather undercard on September 12th

A rematch between WBO super featherweight champion Roman Martinez and Orlando Salido is being talked about for the undercard of the Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Andre Berto fight card on September 12th at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The fight card will be televised on Showtime/CBS pay-per-view. Martinez already beat Salido last April to capture the WBO super featherweight title. Adding the Martinez-Salido fight might help attract interest in the Mayweather-Berto fight card from fans of those two fighters.



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