4/17 DAZN: Demetrius Andrade vs Liam Williams (WBO Middleweight Title)

[patscorpio]

Demetrius Andrade will have to wait for another hometown fight.

BoxingScene.com has learned that Andrade’s mandated WBO middleweight title defense against Liam Williams will be held April 17 at Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida. Eddie Hearn, Andrade’s promoter, explored bringing the DAZN card headlined by Andrade and Williams to Dunkin Donuts Center in Providence, Rhode Island, the city where Andrade was born and raised.

COVID-19 restrictions in the state of Rhode Island recently eliminated Dunkin Donuts Center as a potential venue.

Matchroom promoted three shows overall at Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in the months of November and December. A limited number of fans will be allowed to attend the Andrade-Williams card at that venue.

The 33-year-old Andrade (29-0, 18 KOs) will end a 14-month layoff when he faces Wales’ Williams, the mandatory challenger for his WBO 160-pound championship. The unbeaten southpaw hasn’t fought since he stopped Ireland’s Luke Keeler (17-3-1, 5 KOs) in the ninth round of an optional title defense in January 2020 at Meridian at Island Gardens in Miami.

Andrade’s challenger has been more active than the champion.

Williams (23-2-1, 18 KOs) knocked out England’s Andrew Robinson (24-5-1, 7 KOs) with a left hook to the body in the first round of an October 10 bout in Stratford, England. The 28-year-old Williams, the WBO’s second-ranked challenger for Andrade’s championship, has won seven straight bouts by knockout or technical knockout since England’s Liam Smith (29-2-1, 16 KOs) beat him by majority decision in their 12-round junior middleweight rematch in November 2017 in Newcastle, England.

Hearn announced February 10 that his company, Matchroom Boxing, avoided a purse bid scheduled for that day by reaching an agreement with Andrade and Williams.

Andrade had hoped to fight in Providence for the second time in his past three fights. In the bout before he knocked out Keeler, Andrade defeated Poland’s Maciej Sulecki (29-2, 11 KOs) by unanimous decision in their 12-round fight in June 2019 at Dunkin Donuts Center.

 

[patscorpio]

Carlos Gongora vs. Christopher Pearson on Andrade-Williams Cards

BY RANDOM HITS
Published Thu Mar 25, 2021, 06:18 PM EDT


Carlos Gongora will defend his IBO World Super-Middleweight title against Christopher Pearson as the chief support to Demetrius Andrade’s WBO World Middleweight title defense against Liam Williams at Hard Rock Live at Hard Rock Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Hollywood, Florida on Saturday April 17 in America, live worldwide on DAZN – with the main event set for 6pm ET/11pm GMT.

Gongora (19-0 14 KOs) returns to the scene of his finest hour, the dramatic 12th round KO of Ali Akhmedov in December, weathering an early storm to put the hotly fancied Kazakh away at the death to land the strap that he puts on the line in three weeks’ time.

The unbeaten two-time Olympian was fighting over 12 rounds for the first time against Akhmedov, and the Ecuadorian now wants to underline his credentials to land the big fights at 168lbs against Pearson (17-2 12 KOs).

Like Gongora, Pearson is entering into the bout on the back of his best win to date after he took the ‘0’ of Olympic gold medal man Yamaguchi Falcao in Las Vegas in May 2019. The Ohio man, a decorated amateur in his own right,

Gongora vs. Pearson leads a stacked card in support of the main event, with Mahammadrasul Majidov back in action and looking for a fourth straight KO win against Andrey Fedosov. Majidov (3-0 3 KOs) landed his third win inside the distance at the same venue in November and the former three-time World Amateur king now steps up into ten round action for the first time in the paid ranks against Fedesov (31-3 25 KOs), with the experienced Russian making a long-awaited return to the ring.

Otha Jones III returns to the ring in a rescheduled eight round clash with Jorge Castaneda. Jones III (5-0-1 2 KOs) was set to meet Castaneda (13-1 11 KOs) on the undercard of the epic rematch between Juan Francisco Estrada and Roman ‘Chocolatito’ Gonzalez in Dallas, TX earlier this month but illness ruled the Ohio talent out. Jones III has gotten over that non-COVID related blip and now steps up his pro journey against the dangerous Texan.

Another fighter stepping up after a shelved fight in the Lone Star state is Arthur Biyarslanov (7-0 6 KOs) as he faces fellow unbeaten man Israel Mercado (9-0 7 KOs). Biyarslanov landed a first round stoppage win is his last outing in November in the same venue and the Canadian now steps into his first eight round contest against the unbeaten Californian who won his first seven fights by KO before going the six and eight round distance in his last two outings.

Alexis Espino (7-0 5 KOs) was impressive in stopping Ashton Sykes in his first fight back in a year in February on the undercard of Canelo Alvarez’s win over Avni Yildirim and the Las Vegas talent returns quickly over six rounds and Florida native Aaron Aponte (2-0 1 KO) returns at the same speed for his third fight over four rounds, both with opponents to be named soon.

“Carlos pulled off a brilliant win in Florida in December, and now is the time for him to build himself into a massive threat in the 168lbs division,” said promoter Eddie Hearn. “Christopher is no stranger to upsetting the odds as he proved against Falcao, and he’ll look to do something similar again in Florida.

“Mahammadrasul is looking to make waves in the ever-changing Heavyweight division, and the likes of OJ3, Arthur, Alexis and Aaron will want to steal the headlines in the Sunshine State.”

 

[patscorpio]

Chris Pearson in a co main event role....man

 

[thewiseman]

Andrade fighting the guy that lost twice to the guy that Canelo KO'd

 

[FreedMind]

Chris Pearson in a co main event role....man

I'm just happy Gongora is getting that plug as co main.

 

[patscorpio]

I'm just happy Gongora is getting that plug as co main.

yeah he earned a spot from the impressive the fade he delivered his last time out

 

[Apollo Creed]

Is this coming on the same time as the Jake Paul event? Cause if so then

 

[patscorpio]

Is this coming on the same time as the Jake Paul event? Cause if so then

Nope...thank goodness

 

[malbaker86]

Nope...thank goodness

 

[Liu Kang]

I wish Andradz was fighting better opposition. I just looked at his resume and relatively speaking Martirosyan might be his best name and that was in 2013. I mean there's Sulecki too but in 2013, Martirosyan was legit at 154 and giving Lara problems.

 

[patscorpio]

 

[The axe murderer]

I wish Andradz was fighting better opposition. I just looked at his resume and relatively speaking Martirosyan might be his best name and that was in 2013. I mean there's Sulecki too but in 2013, Martirosyan was legit at 154 and giving Lara problems.

He rarely even loses rounds
That's when you gotta step up your comp ffs

 

[patscorpio]

 

[FreedMind]

He rarely even loses rounds
That's when you gotta step up your comp ffs

He's had SOME bad luck. He can only blame himself for missing out on the Mel fight, but it was a tough break when BJS popped dirty. Those two fights could have changed his career big time.

 

[The axe murderer]

He's had SOME bad luck. He can only blame himself for missing out on the Mel fight, but it was a tough break when BJS popped dirty. Those two fights could have changed his career big time.

He has the style and volume to beat bjs top