Demetrius Andrade got a rugged first test at super middleweight Saturday night at Capital One Arena in Washington D.C., and live on pay-per-view.
And "Boo Boo" passed it, thoroughly dominating Demond Nicholson toward a unanimous decision victory. Judges scored it in the former two-division world champion's favor all by the score of 100-88 for the 10-round bout.
Andrade dropped Nicholson with a right-left combination upstairs in the second round and again in the 10th courtesy of a left-right hook combination to the head. When he wasn't dropping the gutsy Nicholson, he was peppering the veteran with laser-beam jabs and multiple-punch combinations. Andrade hit the canvas in the fifth round after a few body punches from Nicholson but it was deemed a slip.
After the successful debut at 168 pounds, Andrade was asked about clashing with the likes of Jermall Charlo, Caleb Plant and David Benavidez in the near future — appealing fights that made the 34-year-old move up from middleweight in the first place.
"Only way I could say I'm the best is by fighting the best," Andrade told Jim Gray on Showtime.
With the victory, Andrade improved to 32-0 with 19 knockouts.