Demetrius Andrade Cruised Easy Win Over Liam Williams Saturday

In a fight that followed the typical pattern for WBO middleweight champ Demetrius Andrade, he was explosive early with challenger Liam Williams. But then, the fight settled in and Andrade had to wait out and wear down his opponent to score a unanimous decision victory.

Williams won by scores 116-111 and by 118-109 on the other two cards,

30-0 ✔️ pic.twitter.com/Zc47qSnWKE

— DAZN Boxing (@DAZNBoxing) April 17, 2021

Making the fourth defense of his championship and while fighting for the first time in 14 months, Andrade successfully defended his 160 lb. crown in front of some fans in attendance at the Seminole Hard Rock Casino in Hollywood, Florida Saturday evening.

Andrade, now 30-0, began quickly, rocking the Welsh challenger with a left 30 seconds into the fight and had him back on his heels for much of the first round.  Then, in the second round on Andrade scored the first and only knockdown of the bout. After the referee broke the fighters, the champ feigned a jab and landed a booming straight left hand which dropped Williams on the seat of his pants.

The now 23-3-1 Williams barely beat the count at nine and a half, but continued on. Andrade hurt Williams again with a right uppercut in the third round, but seemed at times  disinterested in throwing volume of punches or combinations to try to get Williams out of there.

There was a lot of roughhousing in the fight, including occasional clashes of heads and Williams being warned about throwing a shoulder at Andrade.  The Providence native Andrade was also upset in the fifth round when the referee broke the fighters, because he believed that Williams had tried to thumb him in the eye during a clinch.

The fight continued to wear on with Andrade landing left and right uppercuts from awkward angles and Williams not able to put much offense together.  To his credit, Williams continue to hang in and did land a hard straight right hand that wobbled Andrade along the ropes briefly at the end of round nine. However, he was not able to significantly follow it up

Fighting for the first time since January of 2020 with an impressive 10 round TKO of Luke Keeler also in Miami, Andrade showed championship metal in the 10th round and landed the more significant punches. This included another hard right uppercut with about a minute remaining in the 10th round. He cruised in the final two rounds to put the decision away.

“Liam Williams, Hell of a fighter. Tough. Strong. He comes to fight and that’s the type of fight that people want to see me in. That’s what we did. I showed out. I did what I needed to,” Andrade said to DAZN post-fight.

I already knew he was tough, but him getting back up, wanting some more, wanting some more? He showed me that. It didn’t surprise me.”

Andrade wants a bigger name or opponent, including WBC champ Jermall Charlo or IBF champ Gennady Golovkin and the payday that a Unification fight would bring.

“At the end of the day, I’m a champion. I’m undefeated. I shouldn’t have to inspire anyone to fight me. There’s a lot of money on the table. Whenever we can sit down, I want to do it. I want to show I’m the best,” Andrade continued.

One criticism of the champ is in the past, he’s not been explosive or entertaining enough to create “buzz” for a bigger matchup, but rather, doing just what he needs to, including boxing and staying away from trouble to win decisions.

There was certainly some of that again on Saturday for Andrade, but also credit Williams, who’s only two previous losses were to former WBA Super Middleweight Champ, Callum Smith, for hanging tough.

Now, we wait to see if Andrade can get any of the other champs at 160 lb. to bite.