‘He hasn’t beaten anyone’ – Keeler claims ‘Boo Boo’ Andrade isn’t as scary as he likes to make out
Finance and not fear is the real reason Demeteruis Andrade [28(17)-0] has yet to bag a big middleweight fight claims Luke Keeler [17(55)-2(1)].
Since becoming a two weight world champion and winning the WBO middleweight strap in October of 2018, Andrade has been looking for either a unification or big name clash.
The American has constantly called out Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez and Gennady Golovkin and has looked for fights with the Charlo brothers.
Andrade has accused the top names of running scared and vowed to keep cleaning up the top 10 until the aforementioned have no one left to fight.
Some in boxing claim the two division titlist is high risk and low reward and thus has been left out in the cold somewhat.
However, Keeler argues the narrative has been skewed. The Ballyfermot middleweight, who challenges the unbeaten Matchrooom USA fighter for his world title in Miami come January 30, agrees ‘Boo Boo’ is low reward, but claims he has done nothing as of yet to make him appear a risk.
‘Cool Hand’ thinks the world champ has had it easy at middleweight in particular, which is something he will be looking to change in a number of weeks.
“He’s had three or four easy fights at middleweight. He’s looking at me as an annoyance. He wants the big pay days,” Keeler said.
“He’s not an attractive fighter to come up against; he doesn’t draw big numbers So, he’s talked himself up as this avoided person and he’s the best middleweight. But at the same time, he hasn’t beaten anyone.
“He is getting a lot of credit and people are saying he’s avoided, but if you actually look at his record and his fights, he hasn’t beaten anybody. He’s had a couple of split-decision wins against guys who aren’t at a high world level.
” I’m a 10/1 underdog and I’m glad people are speaking him up so highly. It’ll open doors for me.”
While he isn’t in awe of the WBO world title holder, Keeler does understand the Matchroom USA fighter is a serious step up. The 32-year-old believes he has to vastly improve on his career best performance, which came against Luis Arias last time out, if he is to dethrone the world champ.
“I was happy with a few things, but I went straight back to the gym with Pete [Taylor] and I noticed lots of mistakes. I wasn’t happy with my hand position and I’ve improved so much even since then. I went back and I knew I needed to knuckle down. I took some clean shots against him. I knew in order to step up again; I had to tidy up my defence.”
