by David P. Greisman
There were several times over the years that Demetrius Andrade appeared on ESPN2’s “Friday Night Fights” and raised the ire of that network’s boxing analyst, Teddy Atlas.
Atlas felt that the 2008 Olympian was facing subpar foes and needed to step up against a better level of opponents.
But Andrade’s co-promoter, Artie Pelullo of Banner Promotions, says in essence that the end justifies the means — the end being that Andrade captured the World Boxing Organization’s vacant 154-pound title this past Saturday with a split decision over Vanes Martirosyan.
“We’re very proud of him. It was a long time coming,” said Pelullo, who joined with Joe DeGuardia of Star Boxing to sign Andrade to his first pro contract back in September 2008. The duo has promoted Andrade ever since.
“We think we moved him the right way,” Pelullo said. “We moved him at the right pace for him over the past five years, and now he’s become the WBO junior middleweight champion. I think he’s a very mature guy and a very, very good young fighter who’s only going to get better.”
Pelullo shrugged off the past criticism that Andrade had been moved too slowly.
“You have to take your time, and you develop each fighter at a different pace,” he said. “You don’t know how it’s going to go. It was the right pace for Demetrius. You just can’t listen to anybody. You have to go about your business the way you see fit. The way we did it, we think we were right. He won a world title. You have to do things the way you see best, and not listen to everybody who wants a good fight when they want a good fight — that doesn’t mean it’s going to help develop a kid’s career.”
Pelullo said he was proud of the way Andrade came off the canvas in the first round and went on to get the victory.
“He handled his adversity very well,” Pelullo said. “Knowing that he had 11 rounds to go, it didn’t fluster him, it didn’t make him upset. He didn’t get out of his game plan. He continued to do what he was supposed to do. He went on to beat a very difficult guy.”
The 25-year-old from Providence, R.I., is now 20-0 with 13 knockouts, and is another name in a deep junior middleweight division. Pelullo is now pondering Andrade’s next step.
“We’re talking to several different people,” he said, declining to name them. “We don’t know what direction we’re going to go in yet.”
Pick up a copy of David’s new book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsamazon . Send questions/comments via email at fightingwords1@gmail.com