By Eric Thomas: Fresh off his debut at middleweight last Saturday night, Demetrius “Boo Boo” Andrade (25-0, 16 KOs) has reportedly vacated his WBA 154lb. title following his 12 round unanimous decision over Alantez Fox (23-1-1, 11 KOs) at the Turning Stone in Verona, New York.
(Photo credit: Emily Harney / Banner Promotions)
Like Danny Jacobs, Andrade is now one of HBO’s fighters, and they might make it easier for him to get a fight against Saul Canelo Alvarez and Gennady “GGG” Golovkin. Andrade needs to fight better opposition though. He’s got to fight some good opposition to show that he’s for real and deserving of a fight with Canelo or GGG.
These would be perfect opponents for Andrade to prove himself worthy of a Canelo or GGG fight:
• Sergiy Derevyanchenko
• Danny Jacobs
• Jermall Charlo
• David Lemieux
• Tureano Johnson
• Luis Arias
• Rob Brant
Andrade won the WBA World 154lb. last March in beating Jack Culcay by a 12 round split decision win in a life and death struggle. Now he’s giving up the WBA without defending it in hopes of getting bigger paydays at 160. If Andrade can get one of the top guys to fight him, he’ll be set for life. There’s a lot of money to be made at 160.
Andrade, 29, giving up his World Boxing Association junior middleweight title could come back and bite him on the backside if he fails to accomplish big things at 160. To be honest, Andrade did not look that impressive against Fox. Andrade won the fight by the scores 116-111, 118-110 and 118-109, but it wasn’t the type of performance that would suggest that he can beat the top fighters in the 160 lb. division.
Andrade doesn’t look good when he gets hit back, and he didn’t get hit nearly as hard by Fox as he will when he mixes it up with the likes of Gennady Golovkin, Saul Canelo Alvarez, Jermall Charlo, Danny Jacobs and Sergiy Derevyanchenko.
I don’t think Andrade is up to the mark to defeat any of those guys. Of course, the money that Andrade would get fighting Canelo and Golovkin would make it worth it for him to fight them even if he gets knocked out. You can argue that Andrade’s move up to 160 is more about getting bigger paydays than it is for him to beat the best, because it’s so unlikely that he’ll be able to do that.
Andrade had problems beating Jack Culcay earlier this year in a close 12 round split decision win on March 11. Culcay gave Andrade all he could handle with his boxing ability, heart and the pressure he was putting on him. Last Saturday night, Culcay lost in a more decisive manner in getting beaten by Maciej Sulecki by a 10 round unanimous decision. The fight showed the difference in talent between Sulecki and Andrade.