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Demetrius Andrade planning move to 168 after Liam Williams fight

Andrade explains his decision to align with Matchroom/DAZN instead of PBC while touching on a number of other topics.

Wil Esco is an assistant editor of Bad Left Hook and has been covering boxing for SB Nation since 2014.

Middleweight titleholder Demetrius Andrade is the latest fight to appear on Brian Custer’s Last Stand Podcast and responds a numbers of topics ranging from his decision to sign with Matchroom over PBC, still wanting to fight Billy Joe Saunders, and his intention to move up to super middleweight after his next fight.

On Liam Williams

“Liam Williams is not someone who’s on my radar, just speaking facts because at the end of the day he’s not an elite fighter, elite level guy that people tune into. For him to earn his spot and (Jaime) Munguia, who really was my number one guy to turn down to fight me, and he’s number two now. Williams is not going to stop this train, I expect him to bring a fight because this is his opportunity to make something of himself, his name, but at the end of the day you get to say I lost to Demetrius Andrade.”

On why the fight with Billy Joe Saunders didn’t happen

“Smoke and mirrors on Billy Joe’s side. He went out there and said I’ll fight Demetrius, he didn’t want to wait on Canelo until May, and pretty much just used my name for leverage to make the deal, meaning yo we want this much money or we’re going to fight Demetrius Andrade. We know you really don’t want to fight Demetrius Andrade and the possibilities of us losing is high fighting Demetrius Andrade, and you said you want to unify the belt, so here’s your opportunity.”

On why he signed with Matchroom & DAZN and not the PBC

“Where were the middleweights going and the rumors were DAZN….Me going to the PBC, what are the other really big names in the middleweight division, who can I actually get in the ring with? And now, yes you have the Charlo brothers, Caleb Plant, David Benavidez. Cool, they are definitely elite guys, but over on this side you have the elite money makers, you got Canelo, you got GGG, you got myself, Billy Joe Saunders now, you got variety of more elite guys that’s going to bring in more money on top of it.

On the criticism he doesn’t fight elite opponents

“I’m stuck in a situation where I’m going to fight whoever is in front of me and may the opportunity comes, when it comes I can fight one of these elite guys and show people what skills I have versus another elite guy.”

On moving up to super middleweight

“After this fight, I’ll move up to 168 to fight somebody. At the end of the day, we don’t get no younger, we can’t stay skinny/slim forever, we do put on weight, muscle and mass. I’m a middleweight and for me a middleweight is 154-168, but I can never get back down to 154.”

On Billy Joe Saunders

“He’s a cheat, he’s a liar, he’s a disgrace, and I can’t wait because if I could possibly put these hands on him, I’m going to f*ck him up!”

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