Demetrius Andrade out to Prove He's Ready for Gennady Golovkin and Boxing's Best

Demetrius Andrade has been out of sight and out of mind for a while now. The former junior middleweight titlist and future star among members of boxing's in-the-know community has only fought once in each of the past two years.

The 28-year-old from Providence, Rhode Island, will begin the road back Saturday night when he fights for the first time in 2016 against 154-pound contender Willie Nelson, but he's got a bigger fish on his mind.

“I definitely want to fight [Gennady] Golovkin,” Andrade said during a media workout in his hometown on Tuesday.

He wants to get back into the swing of things and clean out the junior middleweight division before turning his attention to what he feels would be one of the biggest fights in boxing.

“GGG is known for his knockouts. I knock out people, too, but I’m a better boxer than him," Andrade said. "I’m going to clean up the 154 division, make my reputation and then it’s a go with GGG.”

People will certainly debate over who is the better boxer, and a fight would be tricky to make with Andrade now fighting on Showtime and Golovkin wedded to HBO—so you can also question if this was a serious statement or an attempt to sell the upcoming fight—but the idea doesn’t come out of left field and has some merit.

Andrade, a 2008 U.S. Olympian, was riding a serious amount of momentum before issues with his promoters and what can only be described as all sorts of craziness involving Roc Nation Sports put the brakes on his career.

Per Mike Coppinger of USA Today, Andrade, who captured the WBO’s vacant 154-pound title with a decision over Vanes Martirosyan, was set to defend against mandatory challenger Jermell Charlo in December 2014.

But he turned down a career-high payday for that fight because of what he claims was a matching offer from Roc Nation to buy out his contract from Banner Promotions and Star Boxing.

Andrade has since smoothed things over with his promoters, and there were multiple lawsuits filed in every direction from that situation.

He's ready to put that all behind him and become the dominant force in a wide-open division.

“I’m going to knock out the Charlo twins. Both guys have fought on Showtime, so those fights shouldn’t be too difficult to make,” Andrade said. "Once I take care of business with the Charlo twins, I’ll fight [Erislandy] Lara to clean up the division.”

Stanley Bois / A Team Promotions

Andrade also wants to fight former junior middleweight and middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez.

That seems unlikely with Canelo and his promoter Oscar De La Hoya battling a lawsuit and hopefully turning to their own fight with GGG when it concludes, but that’s a different story for a different day.

It's understandable for a fighter, especially one as talented as Andrade, to have big plans, but boxing is a “what have you done for me lately” sport. If you don’t keep the brass ring, someone else will come along and snatch it.

Fans reward talent and skill, but when you’ve been away for a while you need to regain that enthusiasm. You can’t just waltz back in and have what was lost given to you.

Andrade never lost his title in the ring, but the path to getting it back and once again reminding fans how and why he reached the top levels in the first place begins with Saturday night.

Nelson is anything but a walkover opponent.

This is going to require a bit of heavy lifting for Andrade, who hasn’t fought in eight months and last appeared in the ring against an unknown Argentine journeyman that clearly wasn’t in the orbit of his skill level.

Nelson probably isn’t either, at least in a measure of raw boxing talent, but he revitalized his career by scoring an upset knockout over highly touted prospect Tony Harrison last year. He’s tall and has the build to give most junior middleweights a tough night at the office.

Andrade deserves credit for jumping right back into the deep end of the pool.

He understands and embraces the challenge.

“Nelson is experienced having gone through the amateurs. He fought Martirosyan, who I beat. He’s fought at this level. I know he’s tall, but I’m 6'1", so our height difference isn’t serious,” Andrade said.

“I’m pleased that we have this opportunity. Showtime has given me this chance and now it’s up to me to prove I can back up what we said.”

Kevin McRae is a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. You can follow him on Twitter @McRaeWrites. Unless otherwise noted, all quotes obtained firsthand.