Andrade vs. Quigley, Akhmadaliev vs. Rios & Martinez vs. Arroyo on Nov.19th on Dazn

By Boxing News - 10/03/2021 - Comments

By Sean Jones: Demetrius Andrade will be defending his WBO middleweight belt against Jason Quigley with a stacked undercard on November 19th in DAZN. The card is expected to take place in New England in a venue to be announced soon.

The main event between Andrade and fringe contender #10 WBO Quigley pales compared to the two undercard fights.

The Irish native Quigley was recently stopped by Tureano Johnson in 2019, and other than that, he’s feasted on second and third-tier opposition his entire seven-year pro career.

Quigley recently beat Shane Mosley Jr. (17-4, 10 KOs) by a 10 round majority decision last May.

Andrade facing another lackluster opponent

Demetrius ‘Boo Boo’ Andrade (30-0, 18 KOs) will continue his pattern of being matched against domestic level British fighters since he inked with Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom Sport in 2019.

Hearn fails to realize that what interests British fans in the UK doesn’t register with American fans.

The mistake that Hearn is that he doesn’t understand the American market. He seems to think that U.S fans are keen on watching Andrade fight British domestic level fodder, and that’s not working. Andrade’s career is sinking, thanks to the poor match-making being done by Hearn.

Hearn had said that he was going to keep Andrade active fighting the best fighters at 160. Instead, Andrade has been active against these lesser fighters: Liam Williams, Luke Keeler, Maciek Sulecki, and Artur Akavov.

Those are not the type of fighters that American boxing fans were hoping to see Andrade fight when he inked with Matchroom. They wanted to see Demetrius fight QUALITY opposition Jermall Charlo, Gennadiy Golovkin, Canelo Alvarez, Jaime Munguia, and David Benavidez.

The Andrade vs. Quigley card will occur a day before the colossal title fight between WBO welterweight champion Terence Crawford and Shawn Porter on November 20th on ESPN PPV.

Andrade-Quigley undercard:

  • IBF/WBA super bantamweight champion Murodjon Akhmadaliev  vs. Ronny Rios
  • WBC flyweight champion Julio Cesar Martinez vs. McWilliams Arroyo

According to Mike Coppinger of ESPN, Andrade and Quigley (19-1, 14 KOs) have agreed to a deal to battle in the main event on DAZN on November 19th.

Image: Andrade vs. Quigley, Akhmadaliev vs. Rios & Martinez vs. Arroyo on Nov.19th on Dazn

That’s a big, big letdown to see Andrade fighting Quigley because he’s not an elite fighter, and he’s already been stopped by Tureano Johnson. Andrade might as well be fighting Tureano because there’s no point in facing his leftovers in 30-year-old Quigley.

Murodjon Akhmadaliev vs. Ronny Rios

Easily the most talented fighter on the card, 2016 Olympic bronze medalist Murodjon Akhmadaliev (9-0, 7 KOs) will be defending his IBF/WBA 122-lb titles against #2 WBA, #3 WBC Ronny Rios (33-3, 16 KOs).

The 26-year-old Akhmadaliev comes from Uzbekistan and has recent victories over Danny Roman and Ryosuke Iwasa. Fans wanted to see Akhmadaliev take on WBA/WBC champion Brandon Figueroa or WBO champion Stephen Fulton next.

Ronny Rios, 31, has won his last four fights since losing to Azat Hovhannisyan and Rey Vargas.

Julio Cesar Martinez vs. McWilliams Arroyo

In the other exciting undercard fight, WBC flyweight champion Julio Cesar Martinez (18-1, 14 KOs) has a tough scrap on his hands in defending against interim champion McWilliams Arroyo (21-4, 16 KOs).

Martinez, 26, is trained by Eddy Reynoso, the same coach as Canelo Alvarez, Oscar Valdez, Ryan Garcia, and Andy Ruiz Jr. In his last fight, Martinez defeated Joel Cordova by a sixth-round knockout in a stay busy match.

Martinez is fun to watch because he’s an all-action type of fighter, but he gets hit a lot and is vulnerable against pure boxers.

This is a fight that Martinez could lose, as the 2008 Olympian Arroyo is highly technical and has a ton of experience against quality opposition during his 11-year pro career.

Arroyo has fought these quality guys during his career:

  • Roman ‘Chocolatito’ Gonzalez
  • Carlos Quadras
  • Kazuto Ioka
  • Amnat Ruenroeng

What’s interesting about this career is that all three of the fights are fights between Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing’s fighters and Golden Boy Promotion’s guys.

Demetrius is coming off a successful title defense against his WBO mandatory Liam Williams last April.

Andrade defeated Williams by a 12 round unanimous decision in a competitive fight in the second half of the contest.

Williams took a boatload of punishment in the first half of the fight, getting hit with massive shots that would have knocked out most fighters.

By hanging around the entire 12 round fight, Williams inflicted some pain on the tired Andrade in the later rounds.

Fans wanted to see Andrade start fighting good opposition that could test him, and they’re not getting that with him defending against Quigley.