(Photo credit Stanley Bois / A Team Promotions) By Patrick McHugh: Former WBO junior middleweight champion Demetrius Andrade (22-0, 15 KOs) will be making one of his increasingly rare appearances this Saturday night when he faces the hard hitting Willie Nelson (25-2-1, 15 KOs) in a 12 round fight on Showtime Championship Boxing after the Turning Stone Resort Casino in Verona, New York.
Andrade has fought only three times in the last three years of his career. For a fighter with his kind of talent, it’s disappointing to see him not taking advantage of his talent by fighting.
Andrade’s best years are going by in the sport without him capitalizing on them by fighting and by fighting the best. Up until now, Andrade’s best opponent in his career is Vanes Martirosyan. Andrade should have already fought the Charlo brothers, Erislandy Lara, and Liam Smith at the very least.
Andrade, 28, says he wants to clean out the 154lb division by beating the top fighters like the Charlo brothers and Erislandy Lara, and then move up to 160 to challenge Gennady “GGG” Golovkin. The unfortunate about that is by the time that Andrade does clean out the junior middleweight division, Golovkin will be long retired from the sport.
At the pace that Andrade is fighting at, it’s going to take him four to five years to clean out the junior middleweight division. By that time, Golovkin will be nearing 40, and likely retired or heading out the door.
“I definitely want to fight Golovkin. Let me build myself up first, by cleaning out the 154-division, and then we’ll have a mega-fight with two different styles,” said Andrade. “GGG is known for his knockouts. I knock out people, too, but I’m a better boxer than him. It’ll be one of the biggest fights in the sport of boxing. I’m going to clean up the 154-division, make my reputation and then it’s a go with GGG.”
If Andrade is a better boxer than Golovkin, then why was he dropped by Martirosyan in the first round in their fight for the vacant WBO 154lb title in November 2013? If Andrade is a better boxer than Golovkin, then why did he barely beat Martirosyan in winning a very narrow 12 round split decision by the scores of n 114-113 and 117-110, and 112-115 for Martirosyan.
Andrade is a good fighter, but he’s still a very flawed guy that has become a part time boxer since 2013. He’s not an active fighter like the top guys are. Instead of comparing himself with stars like Golovkin, Andrade needs to see himself as a fighter who has a lot of ground to make up for his lost years. He’s missed a ton of fights by not staying active, and he needs to focus on fighting frequently for the remainder of his career of he wants to take advantage of the time he had left.
Nelson, 6’3”, has a real chance of winning this fight. Andrade is hittable, and we’ve already seen him hit the canvas when Martirosyan hit him hard. Nelson could score a knockout on Saturday night if he takes the fight to Andrade early on.
Andrade is used to having things own way against guys that haven’t had the talent to hit him back. If Nelson presses the issue early, he might be able to take Andrade out of there. It’s not as if Andrade is sharp after missing all the time in his career.