It’s [him] again! Demetrius Andrade takes some time to field questions from Fight Hub TV about his inability to land a major fight against Canelo Alvarez or Gennady Golovkin, critics of his ‘boring’ style, and more. Check out some excerpts below...
Andrade on the reports he’ll be facing Steven Butler next:
“I believe so, I guess so. I guess we gonna have a guy to get in there with at the end of the year and let my momentum, let the people continue to keep seeing me. DAZN’s doing a great job with they’re doing — boxing, outside of boxing — and Matchroom doing their job to keep me active, to show the world why I am the best.”
On when that fight will happen:
“I don’t have [the details], I would love to be on that Anthony Joshua card versus Luiz [Note: he probably means Ruiz], I think that’d be great.”
On who he favors to win Joshua-Ruiz II:
“Listen, it all depends on the game plan, who shows up ready to fight, you know?
“Listen, Luiz can fight, he’s a guy. Joshua can fight...I’m not like a big fan of Anthony Joshua or Luiz, I’m more of a fan of the lower weights, Deontay Wilder — those are my guys. Those are who I grew up with...but if Anthony Joshua does what he’s supposed to do as the taller, longer guy that’s been 12 rounds with Klitschko, who use his experience to go on and take him into deep waters, that’s the guy we should’ve seen the first time.
“I don’t know why his corner didn’t like advise him to like ‘yo calm down, let’s go like 5, 6, 7, 8 rounds, let’s pop the jab, throw some straight rights, let’s wear this guy out, let’s get our head back together and make the proper adjustments.’ Not try to go out there and try to swing these big heavy punches with the quicker, smaller guy.”
On his fight with Sulecki, where he started fast and then settled in to simply boxing from the outside:
“Yeah, at the end of the day it’s boxing...Muhammad Ali and Sugar Ray Leonard and greats showed us that’s what it takes. Sometimes you gotta go and fuck ‘em up and then after you do that, he ain’t going nowhere — some guys just don’t get put away — we just gonna outclass him, box him, and I’m also going to show people how to fight, how to box because people study Demetrius Andrade.”
On if he feels pressure to change his style because people call him boring:
“I mean, listen, I’m showing boxing, I’m showing a living, I’m showing longevity. I’m showing like I’m not going to the hospital at the end of the night — that’s what I’m showing. I wanna pass that down to the next generation to use that skills and talent and that brain where — I’m not going toe-to-toe for you, for them over there, for me to end up in a hospital or getting buried. That’s just not realistic for us. We have a life, we have a family.
“Sometimes you have to go to war with another man that’s bringing it. Sometimes it’s like, you know what, you coming, I can’t go nowhere, that’s what it has to take because another man’s trying to take you, so you gonna do that. But if I can outclass somebody and he can go home and I can go home to our families, then that’s what we’re gonna do at the end of the day. This is a rough, tough business. You already got people that like to cheat, doing shit like steroids of course, nasal sprays, tainted meat. We’re already in a dangerous sport, why would you want to be accused of killing somebody in a sense when you’re using them drugs. So be smart, man, and don’t get hit. And then hopefully you can stay tall, black and pretty like me.”
On what he makes of Canelo and Billy Joe Saunders testing dirty in drug tests:
“...for me, Billy Joe needs to get his ass whipped for doing that, you know, so I’m willing to still fight him — of course he has to be clean as well — or we both gonna have to be on the shit! One way or another, what we gonna do?!”
On being in the sport if he hears or knows about a lot of stories of fighters taking banned substances:
“Nah, we don’t tolerate that shit where I’m at. So I never seen it, don’t tolerate that shit — go kick rocks and get the fuck up outta here. You can learn the right way, you can work hard, and you can be in the class you’re supposed to be with your body type.”
On those who would question him being a prominent member of Victor Conte’s SNAC program when Conte has a shady history concerning PEDs:
“Well Canelo, Billy Joe, they took drugs right? Are they still boxing?! Ok, then. I mean are you guys still giving them another chance to do what they do? So why is it a problem when somebody else who is trying to clean their act and do what they need to do and grow and move on. At the end of the day he’s doing a great thing. I’ve never [tested positive for banned substances], nobody at SNAC has ever been, you know?
“At the end of the day people still gonna do what they wanna do. Victor can still love you, do what he needs to do, supply you, and if you go off and go do that, that’s on you, that’s not on Victor...
“Victor and SNAC have been great to me, we always in shape, and at the end of the day he supports us and shows us nothing but respect and love and wants to give us the best he can with what he has — and that’s the clean way.”
On not being able to lands the big fights he wants against Canelo and Golovkin:
“At the end of the day I’m fighting, I’m world champion, I’m making money, I’m in the ring one, two, thee, four times in the last 12 months or something like that — I’m good.
“It’s just the timing is not now...everybody still young, everybody still in the same age, the same weight class, everybody can do the same thing so it’s not like we’re on our last crutch. So it’s all good. And the more I can keep building my brand, keep building myself, Demetrius Andrade — to let the people know what they been missing on — that’s going to lead into fighting Canelo, GGG, because the window’s [closing].
“I understand the business, I understand what’s going on so I’m gonna create my own legacy. I’m gonna worry about Demetrius Andrade, this guy right here, who I have control over. I don’t have control over Canelo, GGG, or anything else like that. So I’m gonna focus on me, do what I need to do, and let the whole world know that you need to keep saying ‘Demetrius Andrade,’ and I’m gonna put on the performance I need to put on to show the difference between my skill level versus their skill level.”