By Jim Dower: Former WBO 154lb champion Demetrius Andrade (23-0, 16 KOs) will be fighting tonight against WBA World junior middleweight champion Jack Culcay (22-1, 11 KOs) in an important title fight at the Friedrich-Ebert-Halle, Ludwigshafen, Germany. Andrade will be looking to become a 2-time world champion when he gets in the ring with Culcay.
Andrade admits that he hasn’t done a lot of studying of Culcay’s previous fights as a pro. Andrade says he’s mostly been training to get ready and not worrying about how Culcay looked in his past fights.
Andrade, 29, isn’t happy that he’s been unable to get the big names like Saul Canelo Alvarez to fight him. Andrade doesn’t understand how he’s been skipped over by Canelo and the other top fighters like Miguel Cotto. He feels that he should have been able to fight those guys. Canelo has been fighting Cotto, Amir Khan, Liam Smith and James Kirkland. Andrade is perhaps seen as not well-known enough with the casual boxing fans to be considered for a fight.
“I don’t know who he’s fought to get the title,” said Andrade to ITR Boxing. “I haven’t really looked at his resume, because that’s not what I do. I’m not a fool. I look to see who I’m fighting, but there’s no studying, because when you get in the ring the game plan always changes depending on somebody’s style and what they’re doing. As Mike Tyson said, ‘Once you get hit the plan goes out the window.’ He must be a tough durable guy that found a way to win some fights that he had to win to get where he’s at. That’s boxing. Why are all these other people getting fights and I’m having problems finding fights? Why is Liam Smith fighting Canelo? Why is Canelo fighting Kirkland. Why is Demetrius Andrade fighting none of these guys? My name is going to be bigger than the belt one day. Belts don’t matter,” said Andrade.
Andrade will very likely get a knockout of Culcay tonight. Andrade hits too hard and has too much of a size advantage for him to go the distance with Culcay.
Andrade needs to take the judges out of the equation tonight by looking to knockout Culcay. He lives in Germany, so the boxing fans are going to be rooting for him tonight. Andrade has got to make sure that he doesn’t let the fight go to the scorecards if he wants to avoid being on the receiving end of a questionable decision. The 6’1” Andrade will be enjoying a 6” inch height advantage over Culcay tonight. Andrade needs to use height and reach to score a knockout.
For Andrade to get the bigger fights that he wants, he’s going to need to move up middleweight and start beating the top contenders in that division. It’s possible that Andrade might not ever get a fight against Canelo even if he wins a world title. The only thing Andrade can do is to try and win world titles in that weight class. That’s perhaps the best way for him to get the fights that he wants. Staying at 154 is a dead end for Andrade. There aren’t enough big names for Andrade to take his career to the next level. Guys like Miguel Cotto likely won’t ever fight Andrade. Cotto is retiring in December, and he’s not going to take a dangerous fight against Andrade.