After taking the savage, multi-knockdown beating he took from the great Thomas Hearns in March of 1987, Dennis Andries, if he was a lesser man than he was, would have walked away from boxing. Yet to his eternal credit, Dennis Andries was not just any fighter. Shortly after the drubbing, and after paying a desperate visit to The Kronk gym and asking an impressed, perhaps even shocked Emmanuel Steward to train him how to fight and to mould him into a world class boxer, Andries began a genuine Rocky-like comeback. What Andries – a fighter who was never blessed with natural boxing skill but was tougher than tough – was able to go on to accomplish is the stuff of legend. Or it should be.
Initially being a subject of derision, Dennis eventually earned the respect of everyone at Kronk; his sheer determination and toughness winning the regulars over; with him soon being given the nickname of “Rock.” Later still, the ever-classy Hearns was heard to say how he was glad he had fought Dennis “before he had really learned how to fight.” High praise indeed.
Now based full-time in America, Andries, already 36 (or older) went on to score five post-Hearns wins under Steward’s tutelage; having become a much more polished fighter. A close points win over the highly ranked Bobby Czyz earned Andries a shot at his old belt (the WBC crown having been vacated by Sugar Ray Leonard) and Dennis went on to crush the undefeated Tony Willis inside five rounds – the February 1989 win coming less than two years after Hearns had almost decapitated him. It is due to this six-fight winning spell alone that Andries deserves to be rated as one of Britain’s special fighters; yet he was to go on to become a three-time light heavyweight champion.
Andries, though, never got his due acclaim then (after having beaten Willis, and winning the WBC title for the second time, Dennis reportedly rode home alone on the subway in London, his belt in a carrier bag. Conversely, Frank Bruno, who had been smashed by Mike Tyson around the same time, received a hero’s welcome upon his return from the U.S for lasting into the fifth round.) and though hard-core fans remember him, Andries isn’t the legend he should be today.
Probably best remembered for his must-see three-fight series with Australia’s Jeff Harding – these fights up there with the most gruelling and punishing ever seen in the 175-pound division – Dennis’ time as a world champion came to an end after the rubber match with the Aussie tough guy, Andries losing a desperately close decision in September of 1991, on home soil in London at that. Dennis lost the series (having previously travelled to Australia, in 1990, to stop Harding in a return of the 1989 battle he’d lost by TKO). Britain’s toughest light heavyweight soldiered on at domestic and European level (winning ten, losing five) before hanging up the gloves in 1996, after a TKO loss to Johnny Nelson.
One of Steward’s less recognised masterworks, one of the Kronk gym’s lesser-known legends, Dennis Andries surely deserves to be inducted into The Hall of Fame one day. Andries’ final record reads – 49 wins 14 defeats 2 draws with 30 wins by KO. He is a three-time WBC Light-Heavyweight King.
What Andries did today in 1989 should have earned him the Comeback of the Year Award (although Roberto Duran was a worthy pick that year). Andries was and is a shining example of what a fighter can do if he refuses to give in.