Demetrius Andrade hears his name seemingly everywhere he goes these days — even while visiting a school in the South Bronx during his own fight week.
Paying a surprise visit, with fellow boxer Chris Algieri, to the South Bronx Early College Academy, a public charter school, on Tuesday afternoon, the fighters asked a group of 24 students huddled around them, “Who’s your favorite boxer?”
With exuberance, one student’s hand shot up and the student mentioned pro wrestler John Cena, even commenting that Algieri kind of looks like him.
MORE: Join DAZN and watch Demetrius Andrade vs. Artur Akavov on Jan. 18
Another excited student answered Conor McGregor, to which Algieri reminded the group that they were being asked about their favorite boxers — not fighters, period.
Just then, a third student simply replied, "Canelo."
Andrade contorted his face, flashing a smile. There's that name.
"He’s going to fight him," Algieri told the students.
"Hopefully," Andrade said.
Andrade, who will put his WBO middleweight championship on the line against Artur Akavov inside the Hulu Theater at Madison Square Garden on Friday night, live on DAZN, proceeded to stress the importance of discipline and focus to the students, before unveiling his title and passing it around the group, drawing "oohs" and "ahhs" as the kids held the heavy gold strap in their hands.
IT'S MY TIME NOW
Demetrius Andrade is planning his long-overdue takeover
He and Algieri, who’s fighting Daniel Gonzalez on the undercard, then presented the group with 40 tickets to the fight on behalf of The Garden of Dreams Foundation, a non-profit that works with Madison Square Garden.
"For the kids to see someone who mostly looks like them, it’s inspiring and builds their dreams," Ray Acosta, a physical education teacher at the charter school, which counts 327 sixth- through eighth-graders, told Sporting News.
Andrade jumped at the opportunity to visit the school about two miles from Yankee Stadium.
“I'm always for the kids. If I can give them some type of advice and let them know that there’s obstacles and things that are going to happen in their life — like road bumps — and that doesn't mean you have to stop, drop and quit and move on to the next because I have a good story to tell as far as getting the s— end of the stick, but now I’m starting to get mine," Andrade said during the ride from downtown Manhattan to the South Bronx school as Sporting News tagged along. "Everybody has their time and mine happens to be now."
The 30-year-old Andrade is hell-bent on staying active in 2019 and securing fights with any of the marquee names at 160 pounds, including unified middleweight champion Saul "Canelo" Alvarez, Gennady Golovkin, Jermall Charlo, or even his friend, IBF champion Daniel Jacobs. One problem: None of those fighters, with the exception of Jacobs, who said he would be willing to fight his friend if it makes mutual sense, has taken any steps toward clashing with "Boo Boo."
Andrade (26-0, 16 KOs) claims that his fight against Akavov (19-2, eight KOs) is a byproduct of none of the aforementioned middleweights stepping into the ring with him.
"At the end of the day, there’s a line full of people that want to fight Canelo and there's champions that maybe fought better opposition than me, but the reason why is because these people didn’t want to fight me," Andrade told Sporting News in the back seat of an SUV. "I'm kind of tired of chasing people, calling out everybody because I always do that. All I can do right now is be the guy to beat everybody else, so there’s no more people that they can go and try to run and make fights and situations happen for them that we're allowing."
He adds: "People are like, 'Why are you fighting Akavov?' Because you people are so used to letting Canelo and these people fight [Rocky] Fielding-type people. And then when you get a real fighter — like me — fighting another real fighter that’s dangerous, you guys are like, 'Why are you doing that?' Because that’s what it’s about — making a name for myself. It’s about putting myself in that caliber, in a position where they have no other options but to fight me."
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Andrade and his Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn have placed themselves in a good spot, cementing a fight in January so they have the rest of the calendar to play with in an attempt to hunt down a few of the aforementioned middleweights on the champ’s wish list of opponents, prioritizing Canelo over all.
Andrade frowns upon Canelo’s three-round destruction of Fielding serving as the first fight of the boxing superstar’s five-year, 11-fight DAZN deal worth a reported $365 million. "Boo Boo" says that Alvarez is eventually going to have to earn that money in the form of taking on tougher opponents, and just like the kids he visited at the South Bronx Early College Academy, Andrade is eagerly raising his hand.
"Unfortunately, it’s not easy for me. My name ain't Liam Smith, my name ain't Rocky Fielding, my name ain't Amir Khan, James Kirkland — it’s Demetrius Andrade and it ain’t no easy walk in the park,” the Providence, R.I., native commented, walking down a list of fighters that Alvarez ran through.
He adds: "I'm not sitting here saying you’re supposed to fight iron all the time because we’re not a machine. We do need bones, but he’s been getting a lot of bones. And then, we got to fight all the tough guys, so it’s like, how is he the face of boxing right now? Because he’s the most popular? Not the most talented, not the most skillful. If you want to be who you want to be and you want that legacy, you've got to start fighting some real guys.”
A day after Andrade's comments, Canelo announced his next fight. It wasn't against Andrade, but rather Jacobs, with their bout set for May 4.
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Andrade has the same disdain for Golovkin, who handpicked Vanes Martirosyan for his May 2018 fight over him after Alvarez failed two drug tests.
“I was the first one to put my hand up and say, ‘I'll fight him,’” Andrade says about GGG. "But he goes with Vanes Martirosyan — somebody who’s been off for maybe a year and a half, maybe two years, that never fought at 160 — somebody I previously beat back in [2013] for my first world championship title. That just goes to show.”
Not being able to get in the ring with Canelo or GGG — yet — brings Andrade back to his strategy of defeating everyone else in the division until they’re forced to look his way.
“I can’t just sit there and say, ‘Let me get these fights with Canelo and GGG,' because if that was the case, I would’ve already got 'em a long time ago,” Andrade says. “My job right now is to get past Artur [on] Friday the 18th, look good, of course, and continue to stay active because that’s the only thing I can control. I can’t control what Canelo is going to do, I can’t control what GGG wants to do. All I can do is knock off everybody else that’s out there that they want to fight, but if I get to them before they do, they have no other opponents out there and the only opportunities that are going to showcase themselves are champions fighting champions or elite fighters fighting elite fighters."
Andrade takes some solace in knowing Hearn has just as big of a chip on his shoulder promoting fights as he does in securing them. Hearn sees the parallel too.
“I think Demetrius has always been fighting against the regime and that’s very similar to me over here now,” Hearn told Sporting News about his own plight in the U.S. “Back in the UK, we (Matchroom Boxing) are the regime — not being big-headed — but over here, we’re that guy where it's, ‘No, don’t let him in. We don’t really want him in. Or maybe we don’t like his style.' And maybe that’s the same with Demetrius — ‘We don’t like his style. Don’t let him in.'"
In contrast to Canelo, GGG, Charlo and Jacobs, Andrade is the lone southpaw middleweight. At 6-1, he's taller than those three and his 73.5-inch reach is tied with Charlo's for the longest out of the group. Simply stated, he’s a matchup problem — if not nightmare — and that has him feeling every bit like the reigning boogeyman at 160.
If Andrade continues to be avoided by a Canelo or a GGG, he is forced to broach the possibility of fighting Jacobs, whom "Boo Boo" has known since age 12.
"We're friends, we're brothers, we grew up in the amateur program together, we traveled the world together, we went overseas and stayed in the same room. When I was younger, I used to come out here [to New York] and sleep in the gym," Andrade says. "But we're both in the same weight class, looking to do the same thing, so if it made sense and is going to change not just our lives, but our families’ lives, then we have to do what we have to do because it's for the better. If that means we got to do what we were bred to do, what’s the harm? We're just getting into a fight.”
Andrade and Jacobs fought on the amateur circuit, with the former saying the bout went "good . . . for me." Jacobs even called on Andrade to spar in preparation for his October 2018 win over Sergiy Derevyanchenko. That said, Andrade doesn’t think it should even get to the point of him facing Jacobs for either man to land a fight with Canelo or GGG. "Boo Boo" even has a plan that might allow he and Jacobs to get those shots without the two facing each other.
"That’s what you got the Charlo brothers for," Andrade says, adding that he and Jacobs have discussed both options. 'He can fight one, I can fight one."
The thought makes sense, especially considering how identical twin brothers Jermall and Jermell Charlo co-headlined a card in Brooklyn in December and might want to continue doing that in the foreseeable future. The only possible derailment of that plan, however, is the fact that Jermell fights at 154 pounds, but the fact Jermell just lost his WBC title junior middleweight title to Tony Harrison has Andrade inviting him up to 160.
"You can’t be young forever. You can’t be 21 forever, so you could definitely come up,' Andrade says. "Everyone does it. That's just how life works."
Andrade is sending the same standing invitation to IBF/WBA junior middleweight champion Jarrett Hurd to lock in a possible fight, and for IBF welterweight champion Errol Spence Jr. to climb two weight classes to throw hands. Spence sort of laughed off this challenge as lip service, but Andrade insisted to Sporting News that he's serious.
"He doesn't want to come up two weight classes, but he’s willing to fight the guy who wants to come up two weight classes sooner," Andrade says of Spence facing Mikey Garcia, who’s moving up for their March 16 fight. "Come up to 160."
THE DANIEL JACOBS STORY: Part 1 | Part 2
One possible opponent whom Andrade has scratched off his list? Billy Joe Saunders. Andrade and Saunders were supposed to fight last October, before the English boxer failed a drug test. That paved the way for Saunders to vacate his WBO middleweight title, which Andrade claimed via a unanimous decision over Walter Kautondokwa.
Less than two months later, in early December, Andrade was arrested for allegedly carrying an unlicensed gun in Providence. Saunders poked fun of the incident on Twitter.
Andrade isn’t interested in fighting Saunders anymore.
"He shows that he’s not professional. From time and time and time and time again — he's always showing lack of being a professional," Andrade says. "His last fight, he fought at 176, so to me that shows and tells me that he needed the drugs to make weight, so there you go. The drugs are also messing with his mind. He’s doing the silly thing, impersonating as a cop, having people do things to hurt each other for a dollar or two. We can’t count on him to show up."
For Andrade, the blueprint is clear — get a convincing win over Akavov, and then get back into the ring, ideally against Canelo, GGG, a Charlo brother or, if absolutely need be, Jacobs, as soon as possible. (Easier said than done).
For him, Andrade, this is bigger than just boxing and fighting legacy. He is fighting for his hometown and his last name, as a son still trying to make his dad proud and a proud dad of three daughters (Sumher, Autumn, Wynter) himself.
"There’s nothing like daughter love. Nothing like it,” Andrade says with a proud grin. "That love inspires me to keep going and never quit because I don’t want to show them that quit is in us. Just because something is hard, doesn’t mean you quit."
He adds: "I'm still young, tall, black and handsome, I'm in the best shape of my life and I got a family that’s depending on me. I’m a role model to them and I’m going to show them that daddy is going to do whatever it takes to show them the way as well. Everybody has their own time and path and mine is now."
