Demetrius Andrade is ready for the fight that will define his career.
Despite being a two-division world champion big fights have alluded the 2008 U.S. Olympian.
Andrade sets his sights on the boogeyman of the super middleweight division. That man is the WBC interim super middleweight champion, David Benavidez. As the bout is set to take place on Saturday, November 25th, on pay-per-view will be Andrade’s moment of truth. Last week, the WBC announced this fight will have title implications. The winner could be mandated to fight Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez next. Canelo holds the undisputed super middleweight title. For Andrade, this the first mega-fight of his career, one that he wants to define his legacy.
“I am not too sure what it would mean in a sense, but it would mean to the people, and how the people will look at it is nobody over here is running away from this challenge,” Andrade told ProBox TV News. “I have been trying to challenge the top fighters for a very long time, I went to people’s press conferences, I got kicked out, I got kicked out and I got kicked out, and nothing prevailed from it. No follow-up storylines from the reporters, it just did its thing and then died down, because they are shutting this [expletive] down. You can’t even mention my name to some of these fighters, because at the end of the day, reporters will get shut down and they can’t do their reporting, and I understand it is a business for the reporters, too!”
“I’ve been with pretty much all boxing networks. ESPN, I was with HBO, I fought one time with Showtime, DAZN, and now I am back with Showtime,” reflected Andrade. “Through all of those journeys, I wasn’t able to get the other fighter I wanted to fight. At the end of the day, it takes two to tango, and David [Benavidez] is willing to tango, and we got ourselves a great match-up.”
“I understand the business, the nationalities of what you are, I get it. If you’re a countryman [and you see a fighter who is] Mexican, Puerto Rican, Dominican, and you have the pedigree of an Olympian and stuff. You have a country following you, uplifting you. Don’t matter if you’re not doing as well, because of the flag, the blood. As far as African Americans it is a little tough, I get that part. We don’t have the ‘oh, we’re Olympians’ and the whole United States is pushing and following us. We don’t necessarily have that. So in a sense, the business mind starts kicking in [for some of these fighters] ‘that’s a risky fight’, ‘what if I get a loss’…because at the end of the day, American boxing is funny. They are not diehard fans for African American [fighters] like how if you’re Mexican where if you lose they still want to [cheer], and they are still going to show up. Me saying this, is why some of the fights are not happening amongst each other. I don’t know why it got to that, where people are scared to take risks, because no risk, no reward.”
Andrade believes that many fighters have avoided from Gennadiy Golovkin to Canelo Alvarez. Alvarez even mocked at a press conference saying ‘payday’ in a clip that went viral. Andrade has been the classic high-risk low-reward fighter. At age 35, he will be nine years older than his 26-year-old opponent, Benavidez. Andrade hasn’t lost a fight in fifteen years. The last time Andrade lost in America was a walkover against Mahlon Kerwick. Yet, the last time he lost a decision on American soil was in 2006 to Shawn Porter. Yet, Andrade is the underdog heading into this fight by the oddsmakers.
“How are you supposed to say you are the best and perform at a high level if you don’t take those opportunities, and then the fanbase of the opposite fighter need to stop with the [expletive]. ‘Who he fought? What he do?’ Dude, that is an excuse. We need to support a good fight. Two people who are good fighting each other. That is all that matters, and reporters, and everybody else needs to start getting behind that more. Not hearing some boxers who doesn’t want to make the fight, because the fight could be difficult.”
