Demetrius Andrade Reveals Why He Vanished After David Benavidez Loss

The former two-division champion says family tragedy and stalled negotiations delayed his return before he launched his own comeback with Jimmy Burchfield.

Demetrius Andrade says family tragedy and repeated promotional delays kept him out of the ring for nearly three years after losing to David Benavidez. The former two-division champion now returns Friday after taking control of his own comeback.

Andrade returns Friday against Douglas Ataide at Mohegan Sun after a lengthy absence that began with family tragedy and ended with a decision to take control of his own career.

“I took time off because of my family matters. My little brother got shot, got paralyzed. My mom, rest her soul. I took time to deal with my family stuff. After maybe like a year or so, I was eager to get back in the ring, but every time I reached out to the promoters to get something going, they would just be like, ‘Wait for the opportunity. Wait for the opportunity.’ I’m like, ‘What do you mean? Let’s create the opportunity. Let’s get things going. What are you waiting for? We need to make the opportunity ourselves,” said Andrade to Chris Mannix on his channel.

Rather than continue waiting, Andrade partnered with New England promoter Jimmy Burchfield to launch his comeback.

“I’m not waiting no more. So, I teamed up with Jimmy Burchfield from Rhode Island. I’m from Rhode Island too. He’s one of the top promoters in this area. I was like, ‘Let’s just do it.’ It made sense. Here we are today creating our own lane, creating our own opportunity,” Demetrius said.

Andrade admitted the inactivity became increasingly frustrating because he believed he was healthy enough to compete long before this week’s return.

“I’m still young enough, still healthy, and I still got the love for the sport. Why do I have to keep waiting around for somebody to tell me, ‘Okay, it’s your turn?’ I’m not doing that. I did that for two years, and it was getting frustrating. This is what I want to do. It’s time to fight, put me back in the rankings. There’s no other option other than seeing Demetrius Andrade back in the mix,” said Andrade.