Demetrius ‘Boo Boo’ Andrade (30-0, 18 KOs) held onto his WBO middleweight title with a hard-fought 12 round unanimous decision over Liam Williams (23-3-1, 18 KOs) at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida.
Andrade dropped Williams in the second round with a right-left combination that hurt him badly. Williams, 28, barely beat the count in getting up the count of nine.
From there, Andrade dominated the fight, hurting Williams multiple times with powerful uppercuts. However, Williams was able to rally in the latter and hurt Andrade with a right hand in the 10th.
Andrade came back strong in the 11th and 12th and controlled the action with his uppercuts, movement, and clinching.
The judges scored it as follows: 116-111, 118-109, 118-109.
Williams’ lack of an inside game hurt his chances of winning, as he wasn’t letting his hands go when Andrade would continually tie him up. To have any chance of beating Andrade, Williams needed to throw while he was being tied up.
After the fight, Andrade and his promoter Eddie Hearn expressed interest in fighting Jermall Charlo and Gennadiy Golovkin.
Here are the live undercard results for the Demetrius Andrade vs. Liam Williams event on DAZN:
- Unbeaten IBO super middleweight champion Carlos Congora (20-0, 15 KOs) totally dominated challenger Christopher Pearson (17-3, 12 KOs) in the eighth round. Congora landed a hard right hook off the jab in the eighth, causing Pearson to take a knee. Pearson beat the count but then chose to take a knee and was counted out. The official time of the stoppage was at 2:15 of round eight. Pearson had a right eye injury that was too painful for him to continue. Congora landed 126 of 356 for a 35 percent connect rate. Pearson connected on 43 of 187 shots for a 23 percent connect rate.
- Alexis Espino UD 6 Ty McLeod
- Andrey Fedosov KO-1 Mahammadrasul Majidov
- Arthur Biyarslanov MD-8 Israel Mercado
Preview:
Tonight, WBO middleweight champion Demetrius Andrade meets challenger Liam ‘The Machine’ Williams on DAZN in their highly anticipated clash in Hollywood, Florida.
Andrade (29-0, 18 KOs) will have his unbeaten record on the line when defends against #1 WBO Williams (23-2-1, 18 KOs) in a 1-round fight at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino.
Williams has made a lot of bold predictions about the fight in the last week, and tonight he’ll be looking to back up his tough talk.
Andrade not worried about Williams
“A lot of people can talk s***, a lot of people can type things out [on Twitter] and criticize and do that type of stuff,” said Andrade to iFL TV in reacting to the criticism being leveled at him by Williams.
“It’s different when you get in the ring and you get punched in the face and you’re thoughts change. ‘Can I do this? My hats off to him, he’s made it this far, but this show is going to keep on going and I’m looking forward to him bringing his best.
“Williams was willing to say yes. He was #2,” said Andrade. “Jaime Munguia was my #1, and he said, ‘No,’ so we went down the list.
“He was willing and able to fight for a world title championship and it’s against me. My hats off to him. I don’t look past him and I don’t look over him, but I do because he’s not the guy that is going to stop his train.
“I’ve got a bright future and I’m going to do what I need to do to get past him and move on to fight the elite guys that you all want to see me in there with and see myself in therewith.
“I’m going to chase the best. There are three champions out there that don’t have an opponent yet, and don’t have a fight scheduled,” said Andrade.
Demetrius wants Golovkin next
“So after this fight, if there’s someone that we can try and make a fight happen with. If it’s GGG if it’s Charlo if it’s Murata.
“He also has a belt, so it’s about unifying the division. If not, I’d like to see what I can do and see what the next big thing is.
“Those [Golovkin and Jermall Charlo] are the fights that we want to see. Every time you mention those guys, you mention me. So let’s make those fights happen.
“The financials are there for all of us. Like I said before, entice them with the money, and that’s it.
“I’m going to go out there and do what I do best, and that’s win, look good and call out the next big thing and that’s GGG hopefully after this fight,” Andrade said when asked about his plans after the Williams clash.
“Of course, Billy Joe has a chance [against Canelo Alvarez]. He knows how to box and he knows how to survive and defend himself,” said Andrade.
“Is he the best at it? I don’t think so, but it’s a 50-50 fight. When you look at it on paper, it’s two skilled fighters, one of them is undefeated and one lost to Floyd Mayweather, Canelo, and has a draw against GGG.
“So it’s a good match-up regardless of the situation,” said Andrade.
