By Charles Brun: Matchroom head honcho Eddie Hearn has announced today that WBO middleweight champion Demetrius ‘Boo Boo’ Andrade and his mandatory Liam Williams have agreed to terms for a fight in April.

Andrade vs. Williams will be shown in the U.S on DAZN, but it’s not likely to bring in a lot of new subscribers.

For Andrade to attract a wide audience, he needs to face higher quality opposition rather than a regular Joe like Liam Williams, who the WBO gave a high ranking to based on wins over fluff opposition.

Andrade will be defending against Williams (23-2-1, 18 KOs) at home in Providence, Rhode Island. The fight is arguably a step down for Andrade from his clash against Maciej Sulecki in 2019, but a small step up from his recent massacre of Luke Keeler in January of last year. Andrade destroyed the hapless Keeler in nine rounds.

U.S fans won’t be excited

Hearn maintains that the U.S boxing fans, who are less than pleased that Andrade (29-0, 18 KOs is making another low-profile defense of his WBO title, don’t realize how good Liam Williams is as an opponent.

Perhaps the reason why American fans are less than enthralled at the idea of Andrade, 32, defending against the Wales native is that he’s never beaten anyone that you can call a world-class fighter.

Obviously, American fans only go by what they see from a fighter, and Williams’ career resume has been woeful at best. The guy has only fought one world-class fighter in Liam Smith and lost to him twice.

Pleased to announce terms have been agreed for @BooBooAndrade to face @Liamwilliamsko for the @WorldBoxingOrg World title in April in the USA – full details coming soon! @DAZNBoxing

— Eddie Hearn (@EddieHearn) February 10, 2021

The British boxing fans will likely be happy that Andrade is fighting a fellow Brit, but they probably won’t be pleased with the outcome of this clash. Williams has already shown himself to be a one-dimensional slugger in his two losses to Liam Smith, and he’s going to be easy for Andrade to solve.

Hearn calls Andrade-Williams a “really good fight”

“The first offer we made to Liam Williams was six months ago, but he’s been dragging and dragging,” said Hearn to iFL TV. “He had an interim fight [against Andrew Robinson], and then Andrade had an interim fight.

“It’ll be in April in Providence [Rhode Island]. It’s a really good fight. What I’m disappointed about that fight is that in America, no one realizes how good of a fight that is.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5uRH0dIUKw

“So people keep going, ‘Oh my God, Andrade. He now has to fight this Liam Williams guy, when is he going to step up?’

“That’s a big step up from the opposition he’s been facing. I actually like Liam Williams. I think it’s the fight Andrade needs because I like Liam Williams.

“He’s going to come in with his Swansea swagger and he’s another person that is good for boxing, Liam Williams. He’s a very tough man, great for the build-up,” said Hearn.

If only Hearn was right about Williams, it would make for an intriguing fight for the fans. Williams’ opposition throughout his career has consisted largely of domestic and European level fighters, who were even close to being contenders.

Yeah, Williams has breezed through most of those hapless fighters, but we’re talking lower-level opposition the lot of them. When Williams did try and step up on two occasions against Liam Smith, he lost.

That’s the end of the story. Williams was found out, and Smith is hardly a great fighter. We saw that in his loss to Jaime Munguia and his stoppage defeat against Canelo Alvarez.

A failure to launch

It’s a good thing for Andrade that he’s getting another easy fight, but it’s actually a negative for him because he’s about to 33, and he’s NEVER fought anyone good during his career.

Andrade’s popularity has failed to increase because he’s been fighting guys with the talent level of Liam Williams his entire career. What Hearn needs to be doing is putting Andrade in against these type of fighters:

Jermall Charlo
Jermell Charlo
Gennadiy Golovkin
Canelo Alvarez
Ryota Murata
Edgar Berlanga
Chris Eubank Jr
David Benavidez
Caleb Plant
Billy Joe Saunders
Sergey Derevyanchenko