By Jeff Aranow: Demetrius Andrade put in a workmanlike performance on Saturday night in defeating Alantez “Slyaza” Fox (23-1-1, 11 KOs) by a 12 round unanimous decision on HBO Championship Boxing at the Turning Stone Resort and Casino in Verona, New York.
(Photo Credit: Matt Heasley – Hoganphotos/Golden Boy Promotions)
Andrade vs. Fox was the co-feature bout on the Jezreel “El Invisible” Corrales vs. Alberto “Explosivo” Machado card on HBO Boxing. Andrade-Fox probably should have been the main event, because it was the fight that was more talked about coming into the fight. Corrales isn’t well known to the casual fans, and he’s from the super featherweight division. That’s not a popular division in boxing. HBO might have missed the boat by putting the Corrales-Machado fight as the main event. It wasn’t a main even worthy fight. It was an undercard level fight, something better suited for the first fight of a 3-fight television card.
Andrade, 29, won the fight by the judges’ scores 118-110, 118-109, and 116-111. Boxing News 24 gave it to Andrade by the score 118-110.
Andrade had Fox hurt in the 1st round after clopping him with a left to the head. It looked at that time like it was going to be an easy night’s work for Andrade. Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to put Fox away, and he was forced to labor hard to get a decision win. Andrade did try hard to KO Fox right away after hurting him, but he couldn’t get the job done.
Later in the fight, Fox dropped Andrade. It was a bad call by the referee, but those things happen. Andrade went down, and he found out the hard way that you need to stay on your feet in boxing if you don’t want it to be called a knockdown. It was actually a slip on Andrade’s part.
Andrade used his jab and powerful left hands to control Fox throughout the fight. Fox tried hard, but he was limited, and he didn’t want to get nailed again like he was in the 1st round. The 25-year-old Fox’s conservative fighting style left few opportunities for the older Andrade to take advantage of him.
”I hurt him early in the 1st round, and he recovered well,” said Andrade. ”He wasn’t sloppy and he knew how to survive, so that is why I did not finish him. He was a big test. Nobody would step up and face him, and I did. This is why I am the best, because I am willing to face anybody.”
Fox wasn’t a big test. Andrade is going overboard with his praise for the 25-year-old. A big test would be for Andrade to fight someone like Jermall Charlo, Danny Jacobs or Sergiy Derevyanchenko. If Andrade fought one of those guys, then he could say he was in a big test. Fox is just a prospect at this point, and obviously a limited one.
This was Andrade’s first fight at middleweight, as well as his first fight under contract with HBO. Andrade is counting on HBO helping turn him into a star and get him fights against Saul Canelo Alvarez and Gennady “GGG” Golovkin. For Andrade to get a fight against Canelo, it will require that he beat a higher grade opponent than Fox. Andrade is well into his prime, and he’s capable of more than this.
If he’s going to slog through over-matched guys like Fox, he may never get a fight against Golovkin or Canelo. Andrade needs to step it up, because he’s wasted his entire career fighting the weaker variety fighters instead of the high level fighters like Canelo and GGG. The move to 160 is a long time in coming. Andrade has been rehydrating into the 170s for a while now. He could have moved up when he first turned pro 9 years ago.
Now that Andrade is on HBO, he’s going to need to fight better guys than he’s grown accustomed to fighting at junior middleweight. Andrade will need to fight good opposition, because it’s unlikely that HBO is going to green light andrade’s fights on their network if he keeps fighting guys like Fox.
It would be good for Andrade to step it up sooner rather than later against the top guys in the 160 lb. division. The reason why it would be good for Andrade to take a hard fight now is because if he discovers that he doesn’t have what it takes to be a major player at 160, then he would still be young enough to go back down to 154 and continue doing well fighting certain guys. I wouldn’t expect Andrade to fight a devastating puncher like Jermell Charlo if he goes back down, but he can go after someone like Jarrett Hurd for his IBF title or look to claim the WBO belt after Miguel Cotto retires. Andrade first has to exhaust his chances at 160 by fighting a top guy as soon as possible to see if he has the talent to make it in this division.