BoxRec

Press Release

Demetrius Andrade will defend his WBO middleweight title against mandatory challenger Liam Williams at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida on Saturday, April 17th, live on DAZN. Andrade (29-0 18 KOs) defends his title for the fourth time.He became a two-weight ruler when he picked up the vacant strap against Walter Kautondokwa in October 2018 in Boston, and has since seen off Artur Akavov, Maciej Sulecki and Luke Keeler in title defenses. Williams (23-2-1 18 KOs) gets his first title shot against Andrade, having lost to Liam Smith for the interim WBO belt at junior middleweight in April 2017, with the Welshman moving to middleweight after losing his rematch with Smith.

Williams became British middleweight champion before stopping Andrade’s old foe Alantez Fox in five rounds in December 2019.

“Liam Williams, you got what you wanted,” said Andrade. “You ran your mouth, got your rating up and here we go. April 17th your career ends. Or maybe you go back to headlining small club shows in the UK, I don’t know. What I do know is that you’re getting beaten badly and then I’m on to much bigger fights and bigger nights in my career. It’s no secret, this isn’t the fight I wanted, but now it’s here and I will be taking care of business, taking care of Liam Williams in spectacular fashion come April 17th. Then it’s whoever wants it. Canelo Alvarez. GGG [Gennadiy Golovkin]. Billy Joe Saunders. Charlo. Caeb Plant. I’m here. undefeated, two-division champion. Current [WBO] middleweight champion of the world. I dare one of you to say my name.”

“I’ve been quite vocal saying I’ll smash him, and I actually am going to,” said Williams. “I’ve waited for this for too long now, I’m not going to let it slip through my fingers, I’ll grab the opportunity with both hands. I just think he’s a complete weirdo, a very strange man – I’ve watched him for some time, I used to be a bit of a fan of him back then, now I get the chance to share a ring with him and punch his face in and I can’t wait to do it. I’m going to punch lumps out of him, nonstop. The first couple of rounds could be tricky, but I believe that I will get on top of him and start beating him up. I think he might overlook me, possibly. To be honest, maybe he has deserved to get a fight with Canelo, GGG, he’s been World champion for a long time, a two-weight and three-time champion, so he’s probably deserved those fights, but his time is up now and once I deal with him, I’ll get those fights. Have you ever seen me going into my shell in a fight? I don’t think he’s going to have enough in him to make me do that, and let’s not forget, he’s not fought anyone like me. When I start hitting him and hurting him, no-one really knows what he’s going to do. Who’s to say he’s not going to go into his shell?”

“This is a really good fight,” said promoter Eddie Hearn. “In America, people don’t realize it’s as good a fight as it is. Liam is a big step-up from Demetrius’ recent opposition, and I think this is the fight ‘Boo Boo’ needs. I like Liam, he’s going to come in with real confidence and swagger and he’ll put it on Demetrius in the build-up, he’s a tough man and he will not take a backwards step against Demetrius, who will need to be at his best to prove he’s the number one Middleweight in the world.”

Early undercard information will be released soon, and no public tickets will be on sale for the show.

Press Release | Carlos Gongora vs. Christopher Pearson

Carlos Gongora will defend his IBO World Super-Middleweight title against Christopher Pearson as the chief support to Demetrius Andrade’s WBO World Middleweight title defense against Liam Williams at Hard Rock Live at Hard Rock Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Hollywood, Florida on Saturday April 17 in America, live worldwide on DAZN – with the main event set for 6pm ET/11pm GMT.

Gongora (19-0 14 KOs) returns to the scene of his finest hour, the dramatic 12th round KO of Ali Akhmedov in December, weathering an early storm to put the hotly fancied Kazakh away at the death to land the strap that he puts on the line in three weeks’ time.

The unbeaten two-time Olympian was fighting over 12 rounds for the first time against Akhmedov, and the Ecuadorian now wants to underline his credentials to land the big fights at 168lbs against Pearson (17-2 12 KOs).

Like Gongora, Pearson is entering into the bout on the back of his best win to date after he took the ‘0’ of Olympic gold medal man Yamaguchi Falcao in Las Vegas in May 2019. The Ohio man, a decorated amateur in his own right,

Gongora vs. Pearson leads a stacked card in support of the main event, with Mahammadrasul Majidov back in action and looking for a fourth straight KO win against Andrey Fedosov. Majidov (3-0 3 KOs) landed his third win inside the distance at the same venue in November and the former three-time World Amateur king now steps up into ten round action for the first time in the paid ranks against Fedesov (31-3 25 KOs), with the experienced Russian making a long-awaited return to the ring.

Otha Jones III returns to the ring in a rescheduled eight round clash with Jorge Castaneda. Jones III (5-0-1 2 KOs) was set to meet Castaneda (13-1 11 KOs) on the undercard of the epic rematch between Juan Francisco Estrada and Roman ‘Chocolatito’ Gonzalez in Dallas, TX earlier this month but illness ruled the Ohio talent out. Jones III has gotten over that non-COVID related blip and now steps up his pro journey against the dangerous Texan.

Another fighter stepping up after a shelved fight in the Lone Star state is Arthur Biyarslanov (7-0 6 KOs) as he faces fellow unbeaten man Israel Mercado (9-0 7 KOs). Biyarslanov landed a first round stoppage win is his last outing in November in the same venue and the Canadian now steps into his first eight round contest against the unbeaten Californian who won his first seven fights by KO before going the six and eight round distance in his last two outings.

Alexis Espino (7-0 5 KOs) was impressive in stopping Ashton Sykes in his first fight back in a year in February on the undercard of Canelo Alvarez’s win over Avni Yildirim and the Las Vegas talent returns quickly over six rounds and Florida native Aaron Aponte (2-0 1 KO) returns at the same speed for his third fight over four rounds, both with opponents to be named soon.

“Carlos pulled off a brilliant win in Florida in December, and now is the time for him to build himself into a massive threat in the 168lbs division,” said promoter Eddie Hearn. “Christopher is no stranger to upsetting the odds as he proved against Falcao, and he’ll look to do something similar again in Florida.

“Mahammadrasul is looking to make waves in the ever-changing Heavyweight division, and the likes of OJ3, Arthur, Alexis and Aaron will want to steal the headlines in the Sunshine State.”

Andrade is the worst.

Demetrius Andrade discusses future plans on Last Stand Podcast

Andrade explains his decision to align with Matchroom/DAZN instead of PBC while touching on a number of other topics.



Middleweight titleholder Demetrius Andrade is the latest fight to appear on Brian Custer’s Last Stand Podcast and responds a numbers of topics ranging from his decision to sign with Matchroom over PBC, still wanting to fight Billy Joe Saunders, and his intention to move up to super middleweight after his next fight. Check out some excerpts from the interview below.

Andrade on Liam Williams

“Liam Williams is not someone who’s on my radar, just speaking facts because at the end of the day he’s not an elite fighter, elite level guy that people tune into. For him to earn his spot and (Jaime) Munguia, who really was my number one guy to turn down to fight me, and he’s number two now. Williams is not going to stop this train, I expect him to bring a fight because this is his opportunity to make something of himself, his name, but at the end of the day you get to say I lost to Demetrius Andrade.”

On why the fight with Billy Joe Saunders didn’t happen

“Smoke and mirrors on Billy Joe’s side. He went out there and said I’ll fight Demetrius, he didn’t want to wait on Canelo until May, and pretty much just used my name for leverage to make the deal, meaning yo we want this much money or we’re going to fight Demetrius Andrade. We know you really don’t want to fight Demetrius Andrade and the possibilities of us losing is high fighting Demetrius Andrade, and you said you want to unify the belt, so here’s your opportunity.”

On why he signed with Matchroom & DAZN and not the PBC

“Where were the middleweights going and the rumors were DAZN….Me going to the PBC, what are the other really big names in the middleweight division, who can I actually get in the ring with? And now, yes you have the Charlo brothers, Caleb Plant, David Benavidez. Cool, they are definitely elite guys, but over on this side you have the elite money makers, you got Canelo, you got Triple G, you got myself, Billy Joe Saunders now, you got variety of more elite guys that’s going to bring in more money on top of it.

On the criticism he doesn’t fight elite opponents

“I’m stuck in a situation where I’m going to fight whoever is in front of me and may the opportunity comes, when it comes I can fight one of these elite guys and show people what skills I have versus another elite guy.”

Andrade on moving up to Super Middleweight

“After this fight, I’ll move up to 168 to fight somebody. At the end of the day, we don’t get no younger, we can’t stay skinny/slim forever, we do put on weight, muscle and mass. I’m a middleweight and for me a middleweight is 154-168, but I can never get back down to 154.”

Andrade on Billy Joe Saunders

“He’s a cheat, he’s a liar, he’s a disgrace, and I can’t wait because if I could possibly put these hands on him, I’m going to f*ck him up!”

Except for his 2013 bout against Vanes Martirosyan, can anybody think of a top-ten world-rated fighter that Andrade has fought in the pro ranks?

I guess Maciej Sulecki might have been a borderline fringe contender, if you're really pushing it, but that’s the only other remotely notable name I can think of.

And can anyone recall the name of any legitimate former or current world champion he’s fought? I can't.

Demetrius Andrade is a bit of an enigma.

Don’t get me wrong, Boo Boo’s amateur pedigree is not up for debate. He’s beaten some big names (i.e. Keith Thurman [3 times], Daniel Jacobs, Shawn Porter and Austin Trout).

But what on earth has he achieved since he turned pro in 2008? If we use the date of the Liam Williams bout, he would have been pro for 12½ years, but his only career highlights are his victories over Martirosyan and Sulecki!

Let's review some of Andrade's poor career decisions...

We know for certain that when Demetrius Andrade rejected the Jermell Charlo bout, it not only cost him a career-high purse, but he was also stripped of his WBO world 154lbs title for failing to defend it within a nine-month period.

Had he taken the Charlo bout, he would have also commenced a three-fight deal with Showtime. But for some reason he decided to walk away from that network deal.

Andrade ducked Charlo, was stripped of his WBO world title, became inactive and ended up facing the following anonymous names for his next three bouts: Dario Fabian Pucheta, Willie Nelson and Jack Culcay.

As well as rejecting the Jermell Charlo bout, Andrade also rejected opportunities to face Matt Korobov and Erislandy Lara.

Andrade also weirdly decided to vacate his 154lbs WBA belt without making a meaningful defence.

And as confirmed in the above interview transcript, Demetrius Andrade intends to repeat history, by vacating his WBO middleweight title, to make the jump to 168lbs, without making a meaningful defence.

It's clear he hasn't made very good career decisions!

Fight Week!!

It's kind of weird that no one is talking about Andrade's (probable) final world title bout at 160lbs against a British challenger.

But I guess we're talking about one of America's most displeasing fighters to watch.

Canelo was ridiculed for facing Liam Smith.

And the lack of criticism Andrade has received for facing an even more inferior opponent, like Liam Williams, kind of illustrates how little fight fans care about Boo Boo.

exactly , ppl just dont give a f@ck, which anyone should keep in mind when they go on about how it's so unfair that someone like canelo gets criticism but andrade doesnt

the criticism is in the silence, he has like 1 fan

Andrade is irrelevant thats the worst spot to be in and hes put himself there

If you don't recognize Andrade's talent, you are either blind or just hate the guy. All he has to do is keep winning. He had poor management early, and still pays for that. Love to see him vs GGG, Canelo, Charlo, but they aren't interested.

lol, ya, winning vs nobodies has gotten him all the big fights hasnt it


and lololol his 1 fan did end up stopping by, i wonder if our boi got his nose pierced too like his idol


btw, it's andrade who withdrew from a mell fight when he had that all lined up. tough sh!t for him if he blew the chance at his biggest fight cuz he wanted to face jack culcay instead

Final prediction

Andrade via decision

Predictions: Andrade vs Williams

Scott Christ (22-6-1)

I really like Liam Williams and think he has a shot here, but it’s going to go one way or the other. Either he’ll be able to put the heat on Andrade and make him uncomfortable, giving himself a real shot to win this fight, or Andrade will be too slick and too skilled. I also think there’s a far better than normal chance we see a truly inspired Andrade coming to do damage and make a statement. These guys have talked a lot. And I think at 33, Andrade knows the clock is ticking fast on getting that Big Fight at 160 or 168. If he wins here, there is no good reason to not do Golovkin-Andrade at 160 unless GGG just retires out of the blue. I think Andrade will prove to be too good on the night (early evening, really), but Williams will have some pockets of success and make it a decent fight. Something like 9-3 Andrade. Andrade UD-12

Wil Esco (23-5-1)

I’ll keep this short. I’m still waiting for Demetrius Andrade to get that elite level fight so we can finally end any debate as to how good he actually is. As for this fight though, I have no real reservations about Andrade being much more talented and just generally better than Williams, and I think that’ll prove itself evident once the bell rings. I’m not predicting a flashy performance from Andrade that’s going to make everyone say ‘wow’ but I do think he’ll definitively win on the scorecards since he’s not th type to press for a knockout. Andrade UD-12

Patrick L. Stumberg (21-7-1)

The million-dollar question for Williams is whether he can consistently get past Andrade’s ridiculous reach, and the answer seems to be “only if Andrade wants him to.” While Williams was able to walk down the likes of Alantez Fox, Andrade boasts a level of distance management, footwork, and head movement that “The Machine” has never dealt with. Even if Andrade can’t cow Williams with an early knockdown like he did Maciej Sulecki, Williams hasn’t demonstrated the skills necessary to shut down “Boo Boo’s” long-range offense if Andrade doesn’t voluntarily elect to throw leather.

Even if Williams does manage to find his way inside and get some work in, Andrade isn’t the sort to crumble when things get hairy; he’s more than able to knuckle down and slug it out if it’s the best or only option. Unable to handle Andrade at a distance and highly unlikely to decisively turn the tables during his brief stints in the pocket, Williams’ first title bid ends in a wide 8-4, 9-3 sort of decision loss. Andrade UD-12

Lewis Watson (23-5-1)

Williams has been a different animal up at middleweight. He’s aggressive, carries power and is tough as they come, but it’s hard to see a one-dimensional attacking gameplan breaking “Boo Boo”. Andrade is slick and a competent counter-puncher and doesn’t strike me as the kind of guy who is going to let his heart rule his head and become embroiled in a brawl. Williams will want that, but after a spirited start, I can see him getting picked off by the champion in tight, competitive rounds. Andrade is far too slippery to fall into a Williams trap. Andrade UD-12

And the staff winner is...

Demetrius Andrade (4-0)!

to be fair williams resume doesnt look any better then andrades , maybe we get a decent 50 / 50 battle .

Bandog wrote: ↑14 Apr 2021, 07:42 If you don't recognize Andrade's talent, you are either blind or just hate the guy. All he has to do is keep winning. He had poor management early, and still pays for that. Love to see him vs GGG, Canelo, Charlo, but they aren't interested.

He hired his managers

He elects to not self market by finishing opponents or impressing in his fights. He elects to coast

He is responsible for his irrelevancy. His decisions have led to an unremarkable career (considering his talent). If his goal is to hold a title, make some money and take little risk good for him mission accomplished

Andrade got on the Florida State Boxing Commission’s scale at 159½ pounds. Williams weighed in at exactly 160 pounds.

Ruthless-RKO wrote: ↑16 Apr 2021, 05:27 Final prediction

Andrade via decision

I agree. I'm expecting a competitive fight though.

candyslim wrote: ↑17 Apr 2021, 03:59

Ruthless-RKO wrote: ↑16 Apr 2021, 05:27 Final prediction

Andrade via decision

I agree. I'm expecting a competitive fight though.

Me too!
Competitive except for when Andrade gets
Possibly wishful thinking..

Andrade is usually a fast starter, then just seems to like coasting.

Andrade not happy at having his dreadlocks flicked by Williams

KiwiRider wrote: ↑17 Apr 2021, 05:02

candyslim wrote: ↑17 Apr 2021, 03:59

Ruthless-RKO wrote: ↑16 Apr 2021, 05:27 Final prediction

Andrade via decision

I agree. I'm expecting a competitive fight though.

Me too!
Competitive except for when Andrade gets
Possibly wishful thinking..

Yes possibly but Williams is not without pop so you never know.

Date: Saturday, April 17, 2021
Start Time: 12pm PT | 2pm CT | 3pm ET (Local) | 8pm UK
Location: Seminole Hard Rock - Hollywood, FL
Streaming: DAZN Worldwide

Running Order

Non-Televised: 1.45pm ET

4 Round Super-Lightweight Contest
Aaron Aponte vs. Javier Martinez

Followed by

8 Round Lightweight Contest
Otha Jones III vs. Jorge Castaneda

Live on DAZN: 3pm ET/ 8pm UK

8 Round Lightweight Contest
Arthur Biyarslanov vs. Israel Mercado

Followed by

10 Round Heavyweight Contest
Mahammadrasul Majidov vs. Andrey Fedosov

Followed by

IBO World Super-Middleweight Championship
Carlos Gongora vs. Christopher Pearson

Followed by

WBO World Middleweight Championship
Demetrius Andrade vs. Liam Williams

Floater

6 Round Super-Middleweight Contest
Alexis Espino vs. Ty McLeod