Paulie Malignaggi says the 35-year-old Demetrius Andrade’s age will factor in the outcome of his fight with David Benavidez, resulting in him possibly being knocked out in the later rounds by the younger, bigger & stronger fighter on November 25th.
(Photo credit: Victor Ren/Showtime)
Malignaggi thinks the former two-division world champion Andrade (32-0, 19 KOs) will start well and look good early but then fade down the stretch due to age and the pressure being put on him by WBC interim super middleweight champion Benavidez (27-0, 23 KOs).
Malignaggi failed to mention some things that could play into the results of the fight, such as the inactivity and the lack of size & experience for Andrade in the 168-lb division.
The Providence, Rhode Island native Demetrius has fought just once in the last two years, and that was a tune-up at 168 against Demond Nicholson. That was Andrade’s debut at 168, and he didn’t look that great.
Benavidez vs. Andrade will be shown live on Showtime PPV on November 25th at the Michelob Ultra Arena in Las Vegas.
Andrade missed out on big fights
“So, he came out with a lot of high praise, and he was the favorite of the U.S. Olympic team in 2008,” said Paulie Malignaggi to ProBox TV about Demetrius Andrade being avoided by Canelo Alvarez.
“He didn’t get a medal; he lost in the quarterfinals, but this kid had a lot of push behind him, even in the amateurs. They brought him in when I was in training camp in 2004.
“This kid was so good that people thought he was going to be a star from the amateurs. He signed with Joe DeGuardia because they offered him 300,000 dollars as a signing bonus, and he took the money instead of going with a bigger promoter.”
Andrade didn’t sign with one of the significant promoters when he turned pro in 2008, which hurt his chances of getting big fights. That’s not to say that being withed by a major promotional company like Top Rank would have changed things because we saw Terence Crawford avoided by other fighters during his many years with that company.
“That ended up hurting him more than anything else because now you’re with a promoter with no date,” said Malignaggi. “You got to go to Germany to fight fighters. You got to go all over the world. You’re not getting a big platform to fight on to showcase yourself.
“Now, you’re getting a reputation for being too dangerous but not known enough because now you’ve gone with a promoter who’s not made you known enough, who hasn’t the ability to make you known enough,” said Paulie.
Andrade checked all the boxes of having the ingredients that made him a bad option for other promoters to match their fighters. These are the things that worked against Andrade getting big fights:
- Excellent power
- Counter-puncher
- Southpaw
- Mobile
- Good defensive skills
“Not only in his prime was this guy avoided, he was mistreated from a business perspective. All those fans that gave comments are biased, and most likely Canelo fans are one of those kinds of fans,” said Malignaggi about Andrade.
“Let me be real clear to you guys. Demetrius Andrade would have beat your favorite fighter’s a** [Canelo]. “Beat his a** all over the ring, in his lace in his prime at any point. He would have beat his a**. No matter who you’re rooting for, he would have beat his a** in his prime.
“Unfortunately, it didn’t happen in his prime. That’s why he’s getting the fight now. He’s still at a high level, I don’t think he’ll be the same guy he was before.
“In those years, he had the potential to be #1 pound-for-pound, and no one will ever know it because of the way he was mistreated, his own personal decision for who he decided to sign with right out of the amateurs and let himself be bough.
“Of course, even when he was with Matchroom, Matchroom was so busy kissing Canelo’s a** and didn’t want to stir the pot. Demetrius was clearly told to be nice when he went to that press conference with Canelo tried to punk him. ‘Nobody knows you,’ and Dmitry still stayed nice.
“Demetrius was clearly told, ‘You can call him out, but don’t ruffle his feathers too much,’ because he had to stay quiet while Canelo abused him. Canelo told him, ‘Nobody knows you.’ Avni Yildirim was known? Rocky Fielding was known?
“You got the balls to tell him that ‘Nobody knows you’ when you’re fighting guys that nobody knows. Don’t play that game here. Andrade is definitely one of the tragic stories of boxing. I don’t know what his result will be. I don’t think he’s going to beat Benavidez.
“I think he’s actually going to start out really well and possibly get stopped in a fight that he might be ahead and gets stopped. I see Benavidez closing very, very strong after an Andrade early good start. Again, at 35 and 36, it’s a lot more difficult to stay strong down the stretch. Also, you’re not in your prime,” said Malignaggi about Andrade.
