By Trish Kilcullen & Peter Mark Heintzelman – It was fight of the night, at the Twin River Event Center, in Lincoln, Rhode Island, and “Somebody’s O Had To Go,” as two undefeated junior middleweights clashed for six very exciting rounds in the co-feature of Classic Entertainment & Sports’ “Saturday Afternoon Special.”
Demetrius Andrade ( now 8-0, 6 KO’s) , a boxer for the 2008 U.S. Olympian Team, of Providence, Rhode Island, was a heavy favorite.
The visitor, Chris Chatman ( now 4-1, 2 KO’s), of San Diego, CA, was all business at the press conference a day before the fights, when he warned Andrade, to “take heed. I’m not any of the adversaries you’ve fought, who are not even worthy to be in a gym.”
Andrade replied, “It’s going to be easy fighting a midget..”
Well, that warmed things up rather well, for the hottest fight of the event on Saturday, and those fighting words seemed to warm up Chatman more than Andrade. Andrade came out into the ring, armored in a firefighter’s helmet, which foreshadowed the flames thrown his way by Chatman, who was just on fire for the full six rounds.
Through six fantastic stanzas, that had the crowd in attendance cheering and yelling more than any other fight this afternoon, Andrade found it was far from easy to fight the determined visitor from the West Coast.
The boxers traded a great series of punches between themselves; where was CompuBox when we needed them!
Neither fighter seemed to dominate the fight, yet photos seemed to confirm our impressions that this fight, at best, could well have been a draw, at worst, than the one-sided decision of the judiciary’s 62-55, 59-55, and 60-55 final votes cast in favor of the hometown Olympian.
A humbling win for Demetrius Andrade, while visitor, Chris Chatman was all class after the fight, stating in his post fight ring interview with CES’s Patrick Sullivan: “I felt I punished him and deserved victory, Nobody is going to hit him harder or pressure him more. I will be back. I am a warrior. He won’t fight anybody like me, unless it is me again.”
The EastSideBoxing crew caught up with Chatman at the post fight reception, that the classy promoter hosts, and Chatman was still in disbelief.
“Don’t you think I won that fight?,” he asked.
Actually . . . yes we did.