OTC’s Andrade keeps up his end in second-round boxing win
BEIJING • Call him the lone ranger, the captain of a sinking ship, America’s last hope.
Whatever you call Demetrius Andrade, make sure you call hima believer.
The Olympic Training Center boxer continued his quest for vindication Thursday at the Beijing Games in a 14-3 victory over Russian Andrey Balanov in the second round of the152-pound welterweight division.
Most regard Andrade, 20, as the only U.S. boxer capable of winning a medal after 2004 Olympian Rau’shee Warren and two others suffered first-round losses and 2005 world bronze medalist Gary Russell Jr. failed to make weight.
The U.S. undoubtedly has more underdogs than favorites in Shawn Estrada, Deontay Wilder, Raynell Williams and Luis Yanez, who was suspended by USA Boxing for skipping several weeks of an OTC camp, then reinstated last month after he publicly apologized.
Even Andrade concedes the stakes have been drastically raised without Warren, his roommate who was stunned Tuesday by South Korean Oksung Lee, failing to fulfill his promise of claiming gold for his mother.
“I feel a lot of pressure,” Andrade said. “They took one king out of the situation.”
The reigning welterweight world champion fought like a king against Balanov, mixing upper cuts and body shots to frustrate the 2006 European champ.
His 2-0 first-round lead ballooned to 7-1 when he scored four points in the closing 25 seconds of the second. He went ahead 11-3 in the third before easing through the fourth.
“We wanted to really touch this guy with some hard punches,” U.S. coach Dan Campbell said. “Then we wanted to box him for a little while, and then come back and bang him up a little bit more. Demetrius did exactly that.”
Asked about his strategy, Andrade said, “Just move with the punches, play defense, work to the body, get him tight. A lot of fighters, they do that little flinch and move, but the other fighters are running after them. I don’t want my guy running after me. I want to slow him down, so I can run after him.”
Chances are the spotlight will remain on Andrade – next up is 2004 Olympic bronze medalist Kim Jung-Joo of South Korea on Sunday – as long as he remains in contention to give the U.S. its first welterweight gold in 24 years.
He’s OK with that. After all, he has a Pan American Games silver medal, two national championships and two National Golden Gloves titles to go with his world crown.
“Everybody expects me to win,” Andrade said. “It’s not always the person that’s expected to win that’s winning. I’m going to make sure it happens.”-CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0256 or brian.gomez@gazettedev.gazette.com. Check out our Olympics blog at gazetteolympics.freedomblogging.com
Photo by Mark Reis, The Gazette