Super middleweights Benavidez and Andrade to square up in Vegas
Two-time super middleweight world champion and interim WBC super middleweight champion David Benavidez (27-0, 23 KOs) will battle two-division champion Demetrius Andrade (32-0, 19 KOs) this Saturday at the Michelob Ultra Arena in Las Vegas. The pay-per-view card will be Showtime’s final boxing broadcast as the network recently announced it would cease all sports programming at the end of 2023.
“I do expect to stop Andrade,” Benavidez said earlier this month at a workout. “I’ve been working extremely hard. My last fight went the distance and I was upset about that. We’re gonna correct the current and stop Demetrius Andrade.”
“I don’t really know his strengths until I get in there, but from watching him, he likes to overwhelm his opponents,” Andrade said of his opponent. That’s really all I see. November 25 tune in and I’m gonna expose his weaknesses.”
Trainer Jose Benavidez Sr., who trains both David and Jose Jr. (28-2-1)—the latter will face undefeated (32-0) WBC middleweight champion Jermall Charlo in the co-main event— discussed the personal significance of the card.
“Having my two sons on the same card on November 25 is going to be extremely special,” he said. “It’s what we worked so hard to achieve for all these years. Through the tears, and the fights and everything, it’s unbelievable. It’s hard to explain with words.”
Charlo, who last fought in June of 2021, was sure the long layoff would not be a factor.
“I won’t be rusty at all,” he said.
“There’s no excuses in this fight. I hope Benavidez isn’t thinking that I’m gonna be rusty. Because I’ve been working. You’ll see.”
Newark, New Jersey, native Shakur Stevenson (21-0, 10 KOs) became a three-division champion last Thursday when the 26-year-old won the vacant WBC lightweight title by a 116-112, 115-113, 116-112 unanimous decision over Edwin De Los Santos (16-2, 14 KOs).
“I had a bad performance tonight,” Stevenson said after the win, echoing the reaction of fans attending the fight at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. “I wasn’t feeling too good, so I’ll live with it. It’s okay. I came here and got the victory, and that’s all I wanted to do.”
De Los Santos was displeased with Stevenson avoiding trading blows at close range.
“We all know what happened,” said the 24-year-old from the Dominican Republic. “He came for a track meet. He didn’t come to fight.
“I showed that I am on a higher level because he never stood and fought like he does with other fighters. I did my job. He came to survive. That’s what he did. They gifted him the title, but I’m the people’s champion.”
Former heavyweight champions Deontay Wilder and Anthony Joshua return to the ring on December 23 in Saudi Arabia, albeit not against one another. Wilder will face previous WBO heavyweight champion Joseph Parker, while Joshua will take on Otto Wallin.
Prior to Joshua’s first career loss to Andy Ruiz at Madison Square Garden in June 2019, a potential Joshua-Wilder match up was in high demand. Though they have a combined five losses, it is still a fight many would like to happen.
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