WBO orders Demetrius Andrade-Steven Butler

After dominant victories over Artur Akavov and Maciej Sulecki, WBO middleweight champion Demetrius Andrade has been ordered to face mandatory challenger Steven Butler in the third defense of the title he claimed by beating Walter Kautondokwa last October. The pair have 30 days to negotiate before going to a minimum-$200,000 purse bid.

Butler (28-1-1, 24 KO) is a 24-year-old power puncher with a solid track record of finishes but a couple of notably shaky performances. Back in 2017, he suffered an upset stoppage loss to Brandon Cook that led to the Montreal faithful hurling beer into the ring. Butler wound up shoving the victorious Cook right into the path of an incoming ice bucket that caught Cook in the head, and that careening vodka bottle you can see in the video also injured a woman.

In more traditional underachievement, Butler barely scraped by Vitalii Kopylenko in May, starting strong but struggling after going down to a body shot.

Still, he does pack some serious power and has nearly seven inches of reach on Andrade (28-0, 17 KO), so the upset potential is there. Damn unlikely, but it’s there.