By: Sean Crose
Former WBO middleweight titlist 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. The 31-0 Andrade was hoping to impress in order to bring in some of his new division’s bigger names while the 26-4-1 Nicholson was hoping to shock the boxing world. Andrade pounced forward like a missile at the opening bell. Nicholson survived this rapid assault, then tried to keep Andrade at a distance. Overall, however, the first was something of a chaotic affair, with Andrade swinging with bad intentions and Nicholson working to weather the initial storm.
Andrade worked to land clean both high and low in the second. An awkward combination put Nicholson down with over a minute left in the round. Nicholson got to his feet, beating the count and looking no worse for wear, but still couldn’t make much happen against the former middleweight titlist. The third saw Andrade firing hard and effectively from range. Nicholson, who claimed to be hurt earlier in the round, simply couldn’t find success. The fourth proved to be no more successful Nicholson. Andrade’s power punching prevented him from being at all effective.
Surprisingly, Andrade went down during the first minute of the fifth, but it wasn’t ruled a knockdown. Andrade got up and continued to fight well. Still, by the sixth, Andrade’s left eye was showing some damage. With that being said, Nicholson couldn’t keep Andrade from tossing off combinations pretty much at will. What’s more, Andrade went on to more or less make it look easy in the seventh. Simply put – the man hit while essentially not getting hit. Suffice to say, Nicholson hit the mat again at the end of the round, but it wasn’t ruled a knockdown.
By the eighth, matters had gotten to such a state that the fight had taken on the air of a sparring session for Andrade. After a dominant ninth for the Rhode Islander, the two men embraced at the start of the tenth and final round. Andrade continued to fire off power punches, but just didn’t seem to be able to close the show (though he did score another flash knockdown on Nicholson). Regardless – Andrade walked out of the ring after the final bell with a wide unanimous decision win on his resume.