Demetrius Andrade drops, decision demonizes Nicholson in 168 debut

WASHINGTON – Demetrius Andrade was very aggressive when he made his super-middleweight debut on Saturday night.

The former middleweight and junior middleweight champion decided to entertain and produce a knockout in his first fight with premier boxing champion Al Haymon. Two rounds, the other was the 10th round.

At the opener of Showtime’s four-game pay-per-view telecast, each of the three judges scored a shutout for Andrade. Stephen Rados, Wayne Smith and Paul Wallace all went 100-88 against the awkward southpaws.

The 34-year-old Andrade (32-0, 19 KOs) was the 20-1 favorite according to most sportsbooks. His 29-year-old Nicholson (26-5-1, 22 KOs), who lives nearby in Laurel, Maryland, has been knocked out twice, which is one of the reasons he was such a big underdog. .

Andrade has ended a 13-month layoff for Nicholson. The 2008 U.S. Olympian has been on Saturday night since stopping Quigley in the second round of Andrade’s WBO middleweight title fight in November 2021 at his SNHU arena in Manchester, New Hampshire. I hadn’t boxed before.

Andrade said the new partnership with Haymon’s firm would help Rhode Islander Providence get the fight they’ve long wanted: a showdown with WBC middleweight champion Jermall Charlo (32-0, 22 KOs). I hope Beating Nicholson at least helped the hugely popular Andrade get used to fighting at super-middleweight.

Andrade caused a knockdown as he landed his left hand in the final minute of the tenth round and Nicholson used his left glove to prevent him from falling to the canvas.

Andrade’s left hand put Nicholson back on the ropes with just over two minutes on the clock in the ninth round.

Andrade and Nicholson gave each other crap at the start of the seventh round. Andrade landed a combination seconds later, but Nicholson blocked most of those punches.

Andrade landed a left uppercut before landing a left straight just over a minute into the seventh round. ruled that he held and hit Nicholson, knocking him down.

Andrade’s two left hands backed up Nicholson and the sixth round was over with less than a minute remaining. Andrade also saw him connect with a three-punch combination seconds before the sixth round ended.

Andrade went down less than a minute into the fifth round. Walid didn’t call it a knockdown, even though Nicholson landed a left-handed body blow before Andrade collapsed into the trunk seat.

Andrade stood up and threw a hard shot at Nicholson before appearing to be fighting on his stout legs.

Nicholson defended better in four rounds than in the previous three.

Andrade’s left hand gave Nicholson a reset in just under 25 seconds to advance to the third round. Andrade’s multi-punch combination led to the third round in less than a minute.

Nicholson was down with 1:13 on the clock in the second round. Nicholson claimed he slipped after blocking one of Andrade’s punches with his right glove.

A left to the body by Andrade landed in the second round at 1:15.

Andrade attacked Nicholson as soon as the match started, landing his left hand and sending his opponent back on the ropes. Nicholson tied Andrade at one minute into the opening round when Andrade tried to take him down.

An aggressive Andrade connected with a left uppercut and a right hook near the end of the first round.

Keith Idec is a Senior Writer and Columnist at BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on his Twitter @Idecboxing.