Luke Keeler promises to ‘come again’ after defeat to ‘great champion’

Luke Keeler admitted he wasn’t able to get to grips with ‘great champion’ Demetrius Andrade in Miami last Thursday night, but that doesn’t mean he fears never being able to compete at world level again.

The Dubliner came up short in a WBO world middleweight title fight against the two division titlist live on Sky Sports and DAZN.

Post the fight he was honest enough to admit he was beaten by the better man and was humble enough to praise a fighter he questioned in the build up.

However, whilst the 32-year-old revealed he struggled against an awkward world champion he assured there are no difficult decisions to be made with regard to his future.

The Ballyfermot man has vowed to fight on and bounce back. For Keeler the road to a world title has been diverted rather than blocked.

The Pete Taylor fighter believes he has it in him to learn and improve and that’s exactly what he plans to do.

“That was my first shot at a world title against an akward southpaw. It’s a style I never dealt well with, but I competed at stages and I know I’ll improve,” Keeler said when speaking to Seconds Out.

“If I didn’t think I’d improve I’d retire. I feel I can still improve and go again.

“There were stages where I didn’t feel out of my dept. I will learn so much from that and I will come again,” he added before stressing where he needs to make adjustments.

“I need to improve defensively, my footwork and dealing with southpaws. I probably frustrated my coach we had a great game plan worked out, but I was a bit fuzzy in there and it was hard to land. He is hard to land on.”

Speaking with regard to the Matchroom USA champion and his defeater post the fight, Keeler was complimentary.

The qualified engineer, who was dropped twice before being stopped, claims he now knows just why Andrade finds it hard to secure fights with the big names he regularly calls out.

“He is a great champion in fairness to him and there is a reason he is avoided. I know I was speaking up and trying to get into him, but he is the #1 or #2 middleweight in the world,” he continues before discussing the first second knockdown.

“He just caught me clean on the top of the head. It was just one of those shots. I recovered which just goes to show the camp we put in with Pete. He was just an akward akward southpaw and it wasn’t my night.

“I thought the last four rounds would be my rounds. I thought he’d fade, but in fairness to him he is a great champion.”