Comments Thread For: It Wasn't Supposed To Be This Way For Demetrius Andrade

[sirculturevulture]

Boxers not only have to show courage. To be great, they have to show courage under fire. Merely stepping into the ring against a Benevidez takes immense courage. But Andrade appeared to panic and he fell for that classic paradox in which the fear of something — in this case getting hurt — makes you more likely to fall victim to it. Too bad because the fight could have been great.

[STREET CLEANER]

It's like writers in the boxing world craft their own narratives without basic fact checking. First of all, the claim that he was lowballed by Jermell's side was just his lying to save face. In his lawsuit against Rocnation, he acknowledged Showtime offered him a "tremendous" career high $550K payday )which was a larger sum than anyone was going to pay him at the time) PLUS a 3 fight deal with an increase in pay per fight. He had a major network offering him a platform to become a star but he declined it to hold out for Rocnation which never offered anything in writing for him-- and he admitted he was compelled to reject the Showtime deal out of fear because Jermell was with Haymon who's affiliated with Showtime. And he probably lied about the RocNation situation was well considering he ended up dropping the lawsuit. Andrade would end up sitting out for over a year and got stripped then spent the remainder of his years at 154 refusing to challenge for a title. If there were any uncertainly about his reluctance to face Jermell, he left no doubt when he was later named mandatory to Jermell's WBC belt, but gave up his position while also announcing that he'd avoid Lara who was holding the WBA super title, instead preferring to face Culcay for a paper belt and only $100K.

And it was more of the same from Andrade at 160. He pulled out of a WBO mandatory title shot vs Korobov. He said he and Jacobs were swerving each other because of their friendship. He pulled out of talks with Derevyachenko and refused to face his mandatory Janibek. Funny thing, Andrade said Janibek wasn't worth his time when Janibek was a fellow amateur champ which was his main claim to fame. Side note, even the Saunders fight could have happened earlier but Andrade threw a wrench in things: team Saunders had promised that if he stepped aside and allowed Saunders to face Korobov for the title, he'd be guaranteed a shot at the winner. However, Andrade went behind their backs and appealed for a mandatory title shot at Korobov instead which was granted but he ended up pulling out of that too (like I previously mentioned).

Also, the claim that Canelo "ducked" Andrade at 160 is more nonsense. After Canelo unified with Jacobs, the IBF ordered he face Derevyachenko, but Derevyachenko stalled out talks by rejecting career high money. Golden Boy then requested Canelo be allowed to unify with Andrade instead, but the IBF rejected his appeal and stripped him instead. With undisputed no longer on the table, Canelo ended up moving up to face bigger and far more proven champs than Andrade. It was Andrade who after all his talk pulled out of four purse bids, refusing to face either his 160 mandatory Janibek or take a 168 mandatory challenger slot vs Canelo. Instead Andrade opted to waste another year of his prime with his inactivity, and ended up facing a random journeyman when he finally returned to the ring.

The guy made terrible career move after terrible career move and never even did the minimum of keeping a busy schedule. He averaged around one fight a year ever since first coming on to the scene and had several years in which he didn't fight period. Whatever raw talent he once possessed he never honed with his inactivity and lower tier opposition. He's more of an example of how far you can make it through boxing politics when you're American with an 0 (even it's untested). The guy is a "2 division champ" yet had never faced or beat a champ or ex champ in any division lol. More than anything, he should serve as a cautionary tale for young fighters as far as what no to do. Maybe Andrade thought he was being smart and extending his career by playing it safe and being inactive while holding out for the big cash out, but all he was doing was stunting his own development and was unready when the time finally came to step it up. But then again, Andrade may very well have lost to Mell and Lara back at 154 and we wouldn't be talking about him today. He gave lackluster performances even against the lower tier fighters he was facing.

There you have it. I got tired waiting for him to step it up. Instead of taking fights that winning would put him in conversations he went after big money fights that were not available to him. Some fighters think they are worth more than people are willing to pay for and he is one of them

Wasted career waiting around to collect the highest paycheck that never came until the end of his career at a much higher weight.

[Robi13]

His career played out how it did because of his own choices and no one else’s. The boy did that to himself

[JoeH27]

Pretty solid article. The hate is plentiful and deserved. Mostly.

[uppercut510]

he went farther than most went in the sport, unfortunately his legacy is tarnished but im a fan, hopefully he gets a few more decent fights n retires, 168 isnt his division either

[elmaravilla]

Like Canelo said, "Get the F outta here man. You ain't fought with nobody." Now he has and got exposed.

[Spray_resistant]

Nice romanticized piece on a guy who tried to game the system by collecting meaningless trinkets, fighting the best opposition who he new he could clearly beat as infrequently as possible, then attempt to cash out and retire with as little risks involved as possible. Solid B level fighter and it showed before this if you had watched his career which I presume is over now since his ploy failed but he did give it a shot at least when time ran out on him.

[crimsonfalcon07]

Guy ducked every top fight he was ever offered, with the only one that's not on him being Saunders. GTFO with that crap about being avoided. He was IRRELEVANT, not avoided, because he never stepped up. When he was finally forced to, he got exposed for the fraud he was. Last straw for me was taking Jack Culcay for an interim belt, when he had a title shot for the real deal on the table, and then barely scraping by with a split.

[hhh1200]

He should have taken the Jermell Charlo fight. That decision and Roc Nation basically doomed him to never getting a big fight until he was old.

Ward got his debt paid off. Thuman was offered 7.5 million and Broner 40 million. How would he know at the time they would reneg on the 1.8 million vs a 200k undercard fight vs Charlo who wasn't that good back then? Fast forward, DaZN had Canelo GGG and Munguia all under the platform and offered Charlo as much as Plant got vs Canelo.

He had at least 2 high-level fights and an undisputed fight on DAZN and DAZN execs "F" up by paying out 10s of millions and not getting guaranteed fights under contract?

Either DAZN doesn't know boxing or their MBAs have degrees from Global Campuses.

There is no way in hell GGG gets an equity deal without fighting these guys. Without Canelo he sold as many PPVs as Crawford.

Benavidez was the only big fight left on the table immediately and Haymon "F" him over with a Kiddy Ring and no prep fights to build his body into 168

[Z. B. Canova]

Indeed - a fabulist tale - to repeat: "...get out of here, you ain'tnever fought nobody." As if BooBoo was ever a threat to Canelo.