BoxRec

Anyone have any news about what Dennis is doing these days?. Was one of my favourite fighters back in the 80s/90s very underappriciated imo... 3 time world champion when there wasnt a dozen world title belts in every division and in some great wars, most notably his classic 3 fight series with Jeff Harding!... one of the best (and again most underrated) boxing triologies. If you think the Ward vs Gatti fights were gruelling then have a watch of these 3 fights!...

after his battering by hearns did`nt he start using the kronk gym to get a better handle on his boxing,the hit man put him down 6 or 7 times if i can remember??

He did, but Dennis also knocked Hearns down towards the end of the fight. He got a real hammering but stood up to it exceptionally well and came back better afterwards

It was the kind of savage beating u would not get to see in the ring today.Andries was down at least 7 times by punches and was on the floor of balance/swinging wildly about another 7 times.
I think the Andries fight was the first one, where Hearns once very good chin (yes it was no matter what happened in the first SRL fight he still absorbed dozens of power shots from Hagler before he folded), was starting to become a chin which seemingly let him down any time he was caught by a clean shot.

Andries stunned Hearns with a right hand in the second which totally stiffened Hearns legs and he also floored him with a wild left hook just before the end. That nonwithstanding it was a brutal beatdown by Hearns in Hearns's backyard in front of a hostile crowd.

Andries actually knocked on the Kronk doors the very next day and asked to be able to train there. The guys there tried to take his head off and send him back to England. He had some brutal ring wars and they accepted him and the rest is history. He became a far more polished fighter went on to beat Willis, Cyzyz, Harding and others.

I really admire how andries went to the Kronk Gym after the Hearns fight and rebuilt himself as a fighter, it takes a special kind of self belief and determinationto do something like that. I remember Steward saying that if he had got hold of Andries early in his career there was no telling how good he could have been. Andries was a very late starter in boxing, and his age was always a little mysterious. Hes listed on boxrec as having been born in 1953 but after defending his title against Tony sIBSON during his first title reign Andries was asked about his age and told by a rather condecending tv journalist something like he hadnt done badly for a 33 year old and replied rather techily 'I'm not 33 I'm 37!' if this is true then Andries was well into his 40s by the Harding fights and over 46 in his last fight for the british cruiserweight title!.....