By: Sean Cross
Former WBO middleweight champion Demetrius “Boo Boo” Andrade made his super middleweight debut Saturday night at the Capital One Arena in Washington, DC. His opponent in the scheduled 10-round affair was the largely unknown Demond Nicholson. 31-0 Andrade was hoping to bring in some of the new division’s biggest names while 26-4-1 Nicholson was hoping to shock the boxing world. Andrade took off like a missile at the opening bell. Nicholson survived this quick attack, then tried to keep Andrade at bay. Overall, though, the first was a chaotic affair, with Andrade swinging with bad aim and Nicholson working to weather the first storm.
Andrade worked to clean both high and low in the second. With just over a minute left in the round, he put Nicholson down with an awkward combination. Nicholson hits the count and gets to his feet, and looks no worse for wear, but still doesn’t have much happening on the former middleweight roster. The third saw Andrade shoot hard and efficiently from range. Nicholson, who claimed to be injured early in the race, simply couldn’t find success. A fourth found Nicholson ineffective. Andrade’s power punches were ineffective.
Interestingly, Andrade went down in the first minute of the fifth, but he was not ruled out. Andrade got up and continued to fight well. Still, in the sixth, Andrade’s left eye was showing some damage. That being said, Nicholson couldn’t keep Andrade from throwing combinations at will. Moreover, Andrade went on to more or less keep it simple in the seventh. Simply put, the guy is basically hitting without hitting. Suffice it to say, Nicholson hit the mat again at the end of the round, but was not ruled out for the fall.
In the eighth, things came to a head and the fight was up in the air for Andrade’s spring session. After a dominant ninth for the Rhode Islander, the two men hugged at the start of the tenth and final inning. Andrade continued to land power punches, but couldn’t seem to close out the show (although he did land another flash on Nicholson). Regardless – Andrade got out of the ring after the final bell and won by a wide unanimous decision on the ref.
