Dennis Andries

Good post, Stevie.

 

His trilogy with Jeff Harding was epic. Loved those fights. Haven’t seen much else of him though

 

I watched the Harding trilogy as a kid and it was one of my first exposures to big time boxing.

Reviewing his career, Dennis started as an astoundingly crude slugger, I rewatched his Hearns fight and was amazed he lasted as long as he did. Hearns seemed perplexed by how to handle him, I almost felt he was worried he would be blown over by the gusts of wind from Dennis' wild swings and suffer a Barkley! For some reason he made me think this is how Battling Siki fought vs Carpentier, albeit winning.

But Dennis really worked hard on his technique and while no-one will ever confuse his style with SSR, combined with a great chin, solid punch and raw determination he had a fantastic second half to his career.

I would say he compares a bit to Glen Johnson as a rugged journeyman who came good, although without the superstar win that Glen had (imagine if Dennis had KO'd Hearns!). I am also reminded of Marv Johnson who had a similar three brief reigns as LHW champ and a similar never give up personality.

It would be hard to imagine Dennis flourishing in his early career in the Bob Foster, pre Spinks and Spinks eras, I see him pretty much suffering the same result as vs Hearns against Foster or Spinks. I see Conteh winning a wide points victory. I do think later era Andries could go to war with Johnson, the two Muhammads, Qawi and have a punchers chance, in fact there would definitely have been a few classic brawls in those fantasy match ups!

He definitely doesn't seem to get the respect he deserves as a great British fighter, maybe because he was based in USA for a big part of his career? On a purely UK level he probably doesn't fair well H2H vs Conteh or Woods although I think he could beat Freddie Mills, and give Len Harvey a few scares!