In a one-sided fight, the huge-looking David Benavidez (28-0, 24 KOs) had too much size, power & youth for the old lion, Demetrius Andrade (32-1, 19 KOs) beating him like a bad habit on Saturday night, until the Rhode Island native’s corner had the slaughter stopped after the sixth round in their Showtime PPV fight at the Michelob Ultra Arena in Las Vegas.
Andrade was knocked down by a right hand from Benavidez in the fourth round when he got wreckless, leaving himself open after throwing a left-right combination.
In the fifth round, Benavidez poured it on, administering a bad beating on the 35-year-old Andrade, and by the end of the round, the fight looked like it needed to be stopped soon.
In the sixth, Benavidez continued to pummel a worn-out Andrade with shots, hurting him and having him close to being stopped. After the round ended, the fight was halted.
With the win, Benavidez will continue his campaign for a fight with Canelo Alvarez, and perhaps he’ll get his wish in May or September next year.
If not, Benavidez will need to step up the level of his competition by fighting David Morrell, the guy that some fans think he’s afraid of, and Dmitry Bivol, who he’s been bragging that he got the better of him sparring many years ago. Obviously, too long ago for it to matter.
B247 will be giving live boxing results of the action below.
– Fighting for the first time since 2021, Jermall Charlo (32-0, 22 KOs) used his superior size and power to cruise to a ten round unanimous decision against Jose Benavidez Jr. (28-3-1, 19 KOs) in the chief support bout.
Jermall had the 31-year-old Benavidez Jr. hurt in the final round but let him off the hook. It looked like Jermall showed mercy on the completely overmatched punching bag-like Benavidez Jr. because the guy was taking one-way punishment the entire fight and offering up very little in return.
The scores were 98-92, 99-91, and 100-90.
– In the fight of the night thus far, Subriel Matías (20-1, 20 KOs) overcame a slow start to wear down and stop previously undefeated Shohjahon Ergashev (23-1, 20 KOs) in the fifth round.
The 31-year-old Ergashev decided he’d had enough and called it quits after the fifth round. Early on, Ergashev looked like he would be too much for Matias, as he was hitting him at will with hard lefts to the head in the first and second rounds.
Just like in Matias’ previous fight against Jeremias Ponce, he started throwing hard leather in the third round, and Ergashev couldn’t handle the power and the pressure.
– Lamont Roach (24-1-1, 9 KOs) outworked WBA super featherweight champion Hector Luis Garcia (16-2, 10 KOs), hurting him and putting him down once to win a close twelve round split decision in a competitive back-and-forth contest.
The judges had it 114-113, 116-111 for Lamont Roch, and 114-113 for Garcia. Roach knocked Hector down in the twelfth round and had him looking in bad shape in round eleven.
– Michel Rivera (25-1, 14 KOs) got back to his winning ways with a ten round unanimous decision victory over the heavy-handed former light welterweight champion Sergey Lipinets (17-3-1, 13 KOs) in action in the 140-lb division. The scores were 97-93, 97-93 and 96-94.
Rivera looks like a smaller version of Muhammad Ali with the way he jabbed & moved around the ring, firing off combinations and looking excellent through the first five rounds.
The 34-year-old Lipinets stunned Rivera with a big right hand to the head in the sixth and continued to fight well in rounds seven, eight, and nine. Rivera finished strong in the tenth, jabbing & tying up Lipinets to control the final round.
– Junior middleweight Vito Mielnicki Jr. (16-1, 11 KOs) put on a punching display, knocking Alexis Salazar (25-6, 10 KOs) down three times to score a first round knockout. Seemingly each time Mielnicki Jr. would land cleanly, Salazar would hit the canvas.
Demetrius Andrade will attempt to ruin David Benavidez’s dream of a mega-fight fight against Canelo Alvarez when he takes on the WBC interim super middleweight champion tonight at the Michelob Ultra Arena in Las Vegas. It’ll be a massive shock to the boxing world if Andrade (32-0, 19 KOs) exposes Benavidez (27-0, 23 KOs) in their main event on Showtime PPV.
The card has excellent fights tonight, especially with the co-feature bout between Jermall Charlo and Jose Benavidez Jr. That fight should provide a lot of fireworks from start to finish as long as Benavidez Jr. (28-2-1, 19 KOs) doesn’t fold under the early onslaught from the unbeaten Charlo (32-0, 22 KOs).
In another great fight on the card, IBF light welterweight champion Subriel Matias (19-1, 19 KOs) defends against unbeaten Shohjahon Ergashev (23-0, 20 KOs) in a match some feel could steal the show from the headliner.
Tonight’s Prediction for David Benavidez vs. Demetrius Andrade
David Benavidez’s collosol size will be too much for the older, smaller fighter Demetrius Andrade, and he’ll knock out the 35-year-old former two-division world champion by the eighth round. Andrade is a talented fighter, but he’s older now, fighting in his third weight class, going up against what is essentially a cruiserweight in Benavidez.
Showtime PPV at 8:00 pm ET
David Benavidez vs. Demetrius Andrade
Jermall Charlo vs. Jose Benavidez Jr.
Subriel Matias vs. Shohjahon Ergashev
Hector Luis Garcia vs. Lamont Roach
Sergey Lipinets vs. Michel Rivera
Vito Mielnicki Jr vs. Alexis Salazar
This fight is another example of Benavidez’s management’s careful selection of opponents to keep him winning long enough to get the Canelo Alvarez lottery money.
They’re not crazy, which is why they’ve kept the vulnerable Benavdiez, who is basically a big guy walking down smaller, weaker opposition to look good. Benavidez is this era’s version of Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. If you remember him, he was a fighter who did well early on by boiling down to beat smaller opposition at middleweight.
When Chavez Jr. would rehydrate, he’d have a tremendous size advantage over his opponents. The bottom dropped out of his career when he could no longer make 160 and was forced to move up to 168 & then 175 to face guys his own size.
We’ll likely see the same thing happen to Benavidez when he can no longer drain down to 168 and is forced to fight at light heavyweight and cruiserweight against similarly-sized opposition as, like Dmitry Bivol, Artur Beterbiev and Jai Opetaia.
Prediction for Jermall Charlo vs. Jose Benavidez Jr
Jermall Charlo (32-0, 22 KOs) hasn’t fought in 2.5 years, but it won’t matter against 31-year-old 154-pounder Jose Benavidez Jr. (28-2-1, 19 KOs) because this guy doesn’t belong in the ring against A-level opposition and never has. Charlo will pummel the hapless Benavidez Jr. tonight, hammering him with everything but the kitchen sink until he wilts by the sixth round.
Benavidez Jr. was a decent fringe-level welterweight, but he has no place at 154, especially not at 160, going up against a talented fighter like Jermall.
“I think the fight will be really interesting for the first six rounds because Andrade tends to start fast, and Andrade said in an interview that he’s going to meet him with a fast start as well. That’s typically not Benavidez’s style to start fast,” said Paulie Malignaggi to ProBox TV about tonight’s David Benavidez vs. Demetrius Andrade fight.
“The crown jewel of this weekend’s fight is this one here,” said Chris Algieri on the Benavidez-Andrade contest. “It shouldn’t take two days to rehydrate,” said Algieri about the monstrously huge Benavidez, who looked totally emaciated at the weigh-in last Friday.
“You’re putting yourself in a dangerous situation that way if you need that much time to rehydrate. Benavidez is probably going to gain quite a bit of weight and refuel and fill win, whereas Boo Boo is not.
“Boo Boo is going to have to cut some weight. Everybody cuts weight. I don’t care what weight class you move up to. You have to cut a little bit of weight, but Boo Boo isn’t going to fill in the same way Benavidez is.
“He can carry the weight well, Boo Boo. He never really cut a lot of weight. Still, when you’re not eating up and eating to the maximum of your training is, it can really affect you. So regardless that he wasn’t a big weight-cut guy, but he is a big frame, and he has room to put on.”
