Demetrius Andrade has been vocal about not getting an opportunity to get a fight with the elite fighters in the middleweight division, despite the fact that he is a titleholder.
Andrade holds the WBO belt. The other belts at 160 are held by Canelo Alvarez, Jermall Charlo and Gennadiy Golovkin. Andrade has called out all 3 of these champions, to no avail. Eddie Hearns claims that he offered Jermall Charlo $7 million dollars to fight Andrade and he turned it down. You can be the judge of the validity of the offer.
So this leaves Andrade with title defenses versus Artur Akavov (who he beat by 12th round TKO), Maciej Sulecki (who he beat by unanimous decision), and this week, Luke Keeler.
5’11” Irish fighter Luke Keeler has a record of 17-2-1, with 5 knockouts. Both of Keeler;s losses came to Tom Duran, in 2015 and 2016. Keeler will make his U.S. debut in this matchup. Keeler comes into this fight off a good win versus Luis Arias (whose only other loss was to Daniel Jacobs.
Keeler has made it clear that he is looking for the upset, referring to this fight as his “lottery ticket”. He believes that Andrade is overlooking him, and it will play to his advantage.
“He’s really talking himself up,” said Keeler. “I don’t know if he believes it or he’s a bit deluded, but he hasn’t produced it in the ring yet. He hasn’t really fought anyone elite, I think he is going to overlook me and I think he is that deluded that he believes he’s one of the greatest and he just has to turn up to win. That’s going to count against him and I am taking that belt with both hands.
“He’s already talking about the Charlo fight and that’s a dangerous mindset when I am coming in with my lottery ticket basically. I’m merely a hindrance to him. I don’t have a great record on paper, there’s a couple of losses on there that shouldn’t have been losses, so he can look past me.
Watch the matchup as part of the Superbowl week festivities on January 30 on DAZN.