In a one-sided fight, WBO middleweight champion Demetrius “Boo Boo” Andrade (29-0, 18 KOs) totally dominated #3 WBO Luke Keeler (17-3-1, 5 KOs) in beating him by a 9th round technical knockout on Thursday evening at the Meridian at Island Gardens in Miami, Florida.
Keeler was down twice in the contest in rounds 1 and 2. Andrade just couldn’t follow up in both cases after knocking him down.
Andrade hurt Keeler in the 9th, and continued to hit him until the referee stopped the fight. Keeler was on his feet at the time of the stoppage at 2:59 of the 9th.
The fight wasn’t expected to be competitive, but few imagined it would be so bad. Keeler, 32, never stood a chance. Andrade flattened Keeler in the opening seconds of round 1 with a left to the head. In the 2nd round, Andrade landed another big left hand that put Keeler down on the seat of his pants.
Andrade hurt Keeler in the 9th with a left, and then poured it on with additional big punches until the referee stopped the fight.
In rounds 3 to 8, Keeler was able to hang in there despite getting hurt a number of times by Andrade. Keeler wasn’t moving his head, and he was stanading stationary in front of Andrade frequently, and this enabled him to play target practice using his left hand. Surprisingly, Andrade missed frequently with shots that would have likely ended the ight much earlier.
If you’re Canelo Alvarez, Jermall Charlo or Gennadiy Golovkin, you might be thinking that it’s not such a bad thing to take on Andrade right now. He’s lost something from his game from the fighter that he was years ago when he was active, and held the WBO 154-lb title. The reason why those guys might not be interested in fighting Andrade is because he’s not entertaining, and he’s not popular.
Joseph Diaz Jr. defeats Tevin Farmer
Joseph “JoJo” Diaz Jr. (31-1, 15 KOs) outworked and dethroned IBF super featherweight champion Tevin Farmer (30-5-1, 6 KOs) in beating him by a 12 round unanimous decision. The scores were 116-112, 115-113 and 115-113.
The size and the power of Diaz was too much for the light hitting Farmer. Normally, Farmer moves around the ring, and boxes his opponents, but he couldn’t do that tonight. Diaz Jr. was on top of Farmer wherever he went, and he forced him to brawl.
Farmer was getting worked over by Diaz when he was at medium range in getting nailed with combinations. So to adjust, he stayed in close to take the power out of Diaz’s shots. It worked, but it also took the power out of his own shots, and he continued to be outworked.
After the fight, Farmer and Diaz both spoke of wanting to fight each other in an immediate rematch.
“We are absolutely delighted that Joseph Diaz Jr. is now a world champion,” said Oscar De La Hoya, Chairman and CEO of Golden Boy. “Today is a very special day for us because Diaz Jr. is a young man who we signed about 8 years ago after participating in the 2012 Olympics, and now in his third opportunity he is a world champion. Golden Boy is getting stronger every day, and today’s a perfect example of that.”
All results:
Jake Paul TKO 1 AnEsonGib
Joseph Diaz Jr. UD 12 Tevin Farmer
Murodjon Akhmadaliev SD 12 Daniel Roman
Scores: 115-112 Roman, 115-113, 115-113 Akhmadaliev
Roamer Alexis Angulo SD 10 Anthony Sims Jr
Amanda Serrano TKO 3 Simone Da Silva
Alexis Espino 165 TKO3 Vincent Baccus
Austin Williams TKO4 Donald Sanchez
Otha Jones III 134.8 TKO2 Juan Santiago
Movladdin Biyarslanov KO3 Nicolas Velazquez
Avril Mathie TKO4 Angelina Hoffschneider