Demetrius Andrade dominates Liam Williams en route to unanimous decision win
After twelve rounds of fairly one-sided action, WBO World Middleweight champion Demetrius “Boo Boo” Andrade (30-0, 18 KO’s) defeated Liam “The Machine” Williams (23-3-1, 18 KO’s) by unanimous decision. Prior to the bout, Williams was confident that he could overcome his versatile opponent. Yet, he clearly lacked the requisite skills to do so. Once in the ring, The Machine displayed his toughness but not the craft needed to prevail. The loss snapped Williams’ seven-fight win-streak since losing to Liam Smith back in 2017.
With The Machine out of the way, Andrade will continue his largely fruitless pursuit of a bigger, more meaningful fight. If given his way, he would take on one of his fellow middleweight champions. Sadly for him and the boxing public, there is not much hope on the horizon of this happening. IBF champion Gennady Golovkin and WBA Super champion Ryota Murata do not mention him whatsoever. The WBC Middleweight champion, Jermall Charlo, has gone a step further and vowed to blacklist Boo Boo.
Before announcing his bout with boxing cash cow “Canelo” Alvarez, WBO World Super Middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders teased at a potential bout. Yet, Andrade firmly believes his name was merely used to leverage the finalization of the Alvarez fight. This is not hard to believe. Boo Boo and Saunders were twice scheduled to collide but both bouts were undone by Superb’s doing.
TWELVE-ROUND DOG-FIGHT
The bout was almost over as soon as it started! Andrade took the bout straight to Williams and hurt him near immediately with a left hook that jellied The Machine’s legs. Williams never stopped coming forward but he was radically ineffective with his offense. When not winging wild shots, he held on tight to Andrade like they were lovers at a red light basement belly rub dance.
Things got even worse in the second period. The jabs and thudding uppercuts that Boo Boo established in the first continued to rain down on Williams’ chin. Yet it was a straight left directly on the button that sent The Machine to the canvas in the closing moments of the period. The UK fighter only narrowly beat the count before finding his feet at nine. Williams enjoyed his best round thus far in the third. This was the first period where he was not completely pummeled and he did manage to land a few clean shots of his own.
By the fourth round, Williams was firmly back in the fight. The Machine pressed forward the entire round and now Andrade appeared to be somewhat uncomfortable dealing with his smothering tactics. In the fifth, Boo Boo began slipping punches with more regularity and blasted Williams with a boatload of crunching uppercuts. The Machine ate them well, continued marching forward and landed a number of his own shots.
Andrade had his cleanest round of the fight due to utilizing beautiful footwork. When smoothly floating around the ring, Andrade impeded Williams’ ability could to do much with him. As a result, he was force-fed an unhealthy amount of jabs, straight lefts and crispy uppercuts. One of the right uppercuts mildly buzzed The Machine and caused him to back-pedal for the first time since the second. Another destructive right uppercut buzzed Williams in the closing seconds of the seventh.
In the ninth round. it appeared that Williams was finally able to hurt Andrade with a straight right-hand that landed directly on the chin. After the shot connected, Boo Boo stumbled backwards into the ropes and held onto Williams like a vice grip when he tried to follow up. After the hold was broken however, he fought on without any other visible ill-effect. Throughout the tenth period, Boo Boo made a point to plant his feet and launch single hard shots.
Despite Williams maintaining his come-forward aggression, Andrade was once again able to display the separation in skill. He moved fluidly around the ring, slipped punches and routinely landed thumping body shots and occasional uppercuts. The Machine absorbed the strikes well but failed to match the offense. The twelfth and final round greatly mirrored the eleventh. When the scorecards were read, Demetrius Andrade retained his belt by way of a wide unanimous decision.
By: Bakari Simpson
