ThaBoxingVoice spoke with Demetrius Andrade about his recent difficulties in securing fights and what the future might have in store for him. With plenty of quality opponents out there in the light middleweight division, Andrade addresses whom he would love to face as well as what he can realistically expect in 2015.
Andrade was supposed to defend his title against Jermell Charlo back in December but after some conflict over what his purse would be, the fight was called off and left Andrade without a dance partner. In retrospect, he probably should have bit the bullet and taken the payday to increase his notoriety and positioned himself a little better at this point. As it stands, his options are presently limited.
After being out of the ring for nearly a year it seems to have left Andrade particularly antsy to get back to work. Following some verbal shots fired via media outlets and Charlo’s recent win over Vanes Martirosyan, it looks like Jermell may be an option worth revisiting… especially since it seems as if it may be Andrade’s only option.
“I’m glad that Charlo won because that hypes up the Demetrius Andrade and Charlo fight in the future. No tellin when it’s gonna happen but when it happen we all gonna see your boy go night niiiight!”
As the current WBO light middleweight belt holder, Andrade assumed he would have his choice of opponent but he has not found that to be the case over the past year. Andrade was adamant about his willingness to fight Charlo even though he’s not particularly excited about it.
On whether he is excited about a Charlo fight, “Definitely NOT. He’s not on my mind, he never was on my mind… with the shit talkin in the media and you know, us goin back and forth… Me fightin Charlo is not really a next move, it’s not the next level. It’s not. I’m sorry.”
Andrade would love to know where the rest of the junior middleweight division is.
I was lookin forward to gettin in with Lara, like I said, you know, Canelo, Miguel Cotto for June, he’s goin another route. K9 [Bundrage], I don’t know where they goin. It’s like everybody goin alllll over the place but don’t wanna fight for the belt. I don’t understand that. Don’t make no sense.”
The sad part about all of this is that Andrade really seems like a guy that just wants the opportunity to prove himself against the best. Money is certainly a big part of what he has his sights on but he made it clear that he wants to challenge himself.
“I woulda loved to get in there with Cotto… that’s a big name. He probably got 2-3 more good fights in him and why not put my skills and my talents against somebody like that where that will either make or break me.”
Unfortunately, Cotto has already been there and done that with respect to proving himself and Andrade knows as well as anyone that Cotto is going to be looking for the nice paydays from here on out.
“[Cotto] probably not lookin for that young hungry [fighter]… he wants to go out with an easy payday but then there’s guys like Mayweather and Pacquiao that wanna go out with a bang so what do you wanna do!? Go out softly, or go out with a bang?”
We know the answer to that question, so what is Andrade’s realistic expectation for 2015?
“People, please man-up and let’s fight.”
Can somebody give this guy a fight, please!?
