David Benavidez and Demetrius Andrade will compete in phenomenality

One of the most interesting fights of the year in professional boxing will take place on Saturday in Las Vegas. Two American phenomena who have not yet suffered defeat will fight for the title of interim champion of the World Boxing Council (WBC) in super middleweight: David Benavidez, who has unique physical characteristics and colossal power, and Demetrius Andrade, who has a unique technique.

Tonight at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, Showtime will say goodbye to professional boxing that it has been showing for nearly four decades. And to part with the once main genre for himself, he prepared something extremely tasty – a fight that promises to be included in the list of the main events of the year, despite its not so loud formal status.

At stake in it is the belt of the so-called interim World Boxing Council super middleweight champion, owned by David Benavidez. Well, or you can interpret it a little differently. At stake is also the rank of a contender for participation in a very prestigious and very expensive match. The WBC title, like the other three significant titles – the International Boxing Federation (IBF), the World Boxing Association (WBA) and the World Boxing Organization (WBO), is owned by the Mexican Saul Alvarez. Last year’s defeat by Russian Dmitry Bivol, for the sake of meeting with whom Alvarez jumped to light heavyweight (up to 79.4 kg), slightly tarnished his reputation as the best fighter in the world, regardless of category, but his insane popularity and ability to turn any show with his participation into a financial waterfall he saved it for now. And, in theory, whoever wins Saturday’s fight will have the right to meet him. In any case, WBC head Mauricio Suleiman promised this.

But when announcing a fight, the interim champion belt and the prospect of meeting Alvarez are usually mentioned only in passing. All this is not so important in this case. Moreover, it is not so important that everyone has a crystal clear track record consisting exclusively of victories (26-year-old David Benavidez has 27, Demetrius Andrade, who is nine years older, has 32), and some have because it will definitely be spoiled. More importantly, the fight between Benavidez and Andrade is a clash of two recognized phenomena, ideal in the sense that they are structured completely differently.

The David Benavidez phenomenon is primarily due to unique natural data. For a super middleweight, he is simply gigantic in height – over 190 cm – and has approximately the same arm span. That is, if he had competed not only in light heavyweight, but in the first heavyweight division (up to 90.7 kg), he would have looked quite organic in it. But even more impressive is the power hidden within Benavidez. There are literally megatons of it, and they always methodically fall on their opponents. And if one of them, like Caleb Plant in the previous fight of this monster, which took place in March, manages to avoid a knockout, they still look after it as if they had just been put through a giant meat grinder. But most knockouts are not avoided, including such strong opponents as David Lemieux, whom Benavidez dealt with before Plant.

It may, of course, seem strange to those who have not followed the career of David Benavidez that he has hit the ceiling with the title of interim champion. But there is an explanation for this. Benavidez was already a champion without any reservations. However, in 2018 he was stripped of his title after he was caught using cocaine. And then, having already returned the belt, he lost it again in 2020, when at the weigh-in before the fight with Roamer Angulo did not meet the category limit.

The magic of Demetrius Andrade is of a completely different nature. About this boxer you should at least know that, being right-handed from birth, he suddenly decided to master the left-handed stance and uses it quite successfully. Well, in principle, his entire style is full of paradoxes: a non-standard technique of blows, clumsy in appearance, somehow incorrect, but causing terrible discomfort to opponents of the movement. This style has already helped Andreid take championship titles in junior middleweight (up to 69.9 kg) and middleweight (up to 72.6 kg), and now he can aim for a notable title in the heavier category. Demetrius Andreid needs a bloody nose to give his phenomenon, let’s say, final legitimacy. After all, all his achievements are slightly devalued by the fact that he has not yet fought with superheroes like Alvarez, also a middleweight “by origin.”

However, judging by a survey conducted by The Ring, people who are well versed in boxing have little faith that Demetrius Andrade will be able to defeat his Saturday opponent. There were 20 respondents – well-known experts, coaches, promoters, and 18 of them bet on David Benavidez, guided by the most obvious of assumptions. Benavidez doesn’t need to invent anything in this fight: his superiority in size and strength allows him to rely on proven tactics – push with a drill, crush, crush and crush. But Andreid will have to spin around, coming up with ways to cope with a fighter of a too unusual format, clearly inferior to him in some aspects that are of great importance, no matter how bright your talent is.

Alexey Dospehov