~ Librado ANDRADE v. Robert STIEGLITZ ~ ANALYSIS and PREDICTION Thread ~

This fight is happening in a couple of days...any more thoughts?

 

Librado Andrade – A Man with No Plan; and that’s a Good Thing

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The Glassjaw Chronicles

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// In Guanajuato, Mexico’s small town of Jesus Del Monte, eight year old Librado Andrade had a familiar ritual, one that gave him hope and drove him on those days when it seemed like small town life would be the only thing he would ever know.

Dragging his younger brother Enrique along with him, Librado would climb up to the roof of his house and look beyond the hills.

“I always wondered how far I could go,” Andrade remembered. Eventually, he was going to find out.

“One day I took my little brother and we went from our little town to the city and it took us the whole day, but I wanted to see if I could go that far.”

That was just the start of Andrade’s adventures, and 21 years later, it may be safe to say that he made it – out of the small town, out of the 9 to 5 grind, and into life as a contender and possibly a future champion in boxing’s super middleweight division.

“It’s been such a big ride and I’ve gone so far,” said Andrade. “Personally, it’s been fantastic. It’s like we were meant to be here.”

Well, maybe that’s pushing it, especially considering the brothers’ early forays into the sweet science - which saw them lose an estimated 10 of their 15 amateur bouts. But after a four year sabbatical from the game as the two attended high school, both came back to the sport, and by 1999, the 20-year old Andrade was making his pro debut with a four round win over Marcus Harvey.

Enrique would enter the pro ranks two months later, and the two quickly became favorites on the local circuit. All the while, Librado kept his day job at Jack in The Box, even as the wins piled up and he joined Oscar De La Hoya’s newly launched Golden Boy Promotions team.

“It was very difficult at that time, but I never took it that way,” said Andrade on his double life. “I never noticed how hard it was; I just did it. And when people started saying ‘how can you work and fight, that’s so hard?’ That’s when I started realizing it that yeah, it must be hard, but it wasn’t for me. It was just what I needed to do at that time.”

By August of 2005, everything had changed though. Andrade was a staple on HBO Latino’s Boxeo De Oro series and other televised boxing shows, he was world-ranked, and fight fans were clamoring for more of the reckless slugger who celebrated wins with backflips off the corner post.

“I think it’s because I don’t have a plan,” said Andrade of his popularity. “There is no plan. I’m gonna go there, and I’m just gonna fight. And whatever he throws at me, if I don’t catch it, it’s because he missed on purpose. (Laughs) I’m gonna come at him and I’m gonna make him fight. I just want to fight, I want to get it over with. If I can get it over with one round, I will; if it goes the distance, I’m willing to go there.”

In other words, he was an unlikely star and an obvious one at the same time. So it was no surprise that manager to the stars Al Haymon noticed what Andrade brought to the table and he signed him to a roster that includes Floyd Mayweather Jr., Vernon Forrest, Andre Berto, Paul Williams, and Jermain Taylor. First order of business for Haymon? Make Andrade a full-time fighter.

“All of our lives, it really changed when we met Al Haymon,” said Andrade. “He really changed our lives and gave us a different perspective. He asked us not to work anymore, and he helped us financially, where we could be stable until we would be able to fight and live comfortably.”

Surprisingly though, Andrade had to make an adjustment to being free of a day job for the first time since he started fighting.

“Me and brother always used to say ‘man, how lucky those guys are,’ those superstars who only trained and fought,” he said. “We said ‘that must be great.’ But I found out that it’s harder. It’s a little bit easier to have a job and fight. Now, you say ah, I’ll do it later, I’ll go running a little later, or I’ll work out a little bit later. You’re the boss of your own time, and sometimes you tend to let up a little bit. When I was working and fighting, I felt like I needed to do it and I had to do this or that and I had to do it now because I wouldn’t have time later. In a way, I wasn’t as conscious of what I was doing, so I would do it a little bit better. So it’s been hard, now that I haven’t worked, to keep fighting at this level.”

Andrade kept his nose to the grindstone though and continued on his unbeaten march to a title shot. His brother Enrique, who had already lost via TKO to Christian Cruz and decision to journeyman Sam Reese, was at a crossroads, one that would see him lose two more times (to Sam Soliman and Bronco McKart) before winning the NABF middleweight title in 2007 and defending it with a stoppage of Norberto Bravo in February. It wasn’t easy for Andrade to deal with.

“It’s very, very tough,” he said when asked if it’s difficult for him to watch his brother fight. “My brother has a very different mentality. (When they signed with Haymon) He (Haymon) put a mentality on me where he didn’t have to tell me two times because this is what I wanted. He only had to do it once. This was what I was waiting for. My brother’s mentality is a little bit different. I don’t know what it is, but I wish that he could think so much more of himself. My brother sometimes settles for just enough instead of saying ‘just enough is not good enough. I want more.’ Hopefully he changes, but I can’t speak for him. After he had his first loss, we kind of separated a little bit in our careers and it’s been very tough for him, but I hope he gets back because he’s a way better fighter than me, I’ll tell you that. I think it’s just that he doesn’t have that confidence. I walk with confidence, and if I didn’t have it inside of me, you wouldn’t even notice. And I tell him that. ‘You have to have confidence; just pretend you have confidence – nobody’s gonna know the difference.’ We grew up very close – whatever I’ve seen, he’s seen, whatever I’ve done, he’s done.”

Andrade’s voice trails off, and as he talks about his brother heading to Australia to work with WBA light heavyweight champ Danny Green, you know that if he could trade places with his brother he would.

“Even though I don’t like the idea, if he wants to go and be a sparring partner for somebody, its okay, but I wish he didn’t have to do that,” he said.

In 2007, the unbeaten Andrade would get his long-awaited title shot against 38-0 Mikkel Kessler in Denmark. It was the opportunity the La Habra, California resident had waited for since he started boxing, yet once the bell rang, everything went wrong.

“He was smoking,” said Andrade. “He was smoking me. And it wasn’t his hands or his power, it was his footwork. I saw him go one direction, turn, and then go in another direction where I totally couldn’t adjust. If he would have done that with (Joe) Calzaghe, it would have been a totally different game.”

One step behind for the entire fight, Andrade showed heart and determination, but he couldn’t do anything with Kessler, who won a shutout decision. For Andrade, it was a night that still doesn’t make any sense to him.

“When I went to that fight, I was so emotional,” he recalls. “Leading up to the fight, going into the fight, being in the ring, I couldn’t believe it, it was incredible. I remember one of the rounds I hit Kessler with a right hand and I hit him on top of the ear, and honestly, he made a noise like ‘ow’ or ‘ahhh’ in front of me, and I felt like saying I’m sorry. (Laughs) I didn’t know what was wrong with me; I don’t feel that when I fight, I just want to get it over with. That fight was so weird, but it’s behind me, I don’t care – I was overdue for a loss anyway. (Laughs) I’m just happy that it was with Kessler because he’s a very good fighter.”

A year later, what would he do differently against Kessler?

“I don’t know,” he admits. “At least I’d like to win one round. That would be my first goal because man, Kessler was so fast that day.”

 

ctd.

Andrade was back in the ring four months later and showed no ill effects from the defeat as he blasted out Teddy Muller in two rounds. Last October though, he and his fans got a shock from Yusaf Mack when the Philadelphian put the iron-chinned Andrade on the canvas for the first time in his career in the opening round of their bout for the vacant USBA title.

“It was real weird, it was like a heat all over my body, and it felt like everything crumbled on top of me and I just had to go down,” said Andrade of the first round knockdown. “I put my head up and stepped back at the same time, and he got me right on the temple as I was going back. I had no strength on that leg and I went straight down. When I was on the floor, there was so much heat in my body and I was like ‘wow, so this is how it feels to get knocked down. This is weird.’ So I stood there for a couple of seconds, enjoyed the view from down there, got up and I went to the corner. I said ‘I’m okay’ to the referee, and after that it was okay. I actually got hit harder later on in the fight than I did with that shot, but it was like perfect timing.”

By the end of the round, Andrade was firing back and even had his wits about him enough to look up at the screens in the Mandalay Bay Events Center between rounds and admire Mack’s handiwork.

“If somebody does good, even if it’s against me, I see it and I say ‘whoa, that was good,’” he said. “I’ve got to admit it.”

What happened next was typical Andrade – take a shot, throw back three more, repeat. By the seventh round, he had worn Mack down and now it was time to finish. Three knockdowns later, he had his TKO victory and the USBA belt. On Saturday, Andrade will be back in action to face Germany-based Russian Robert Stieglitz on the Joel Casamayor-Michael Katsidis undercard at the Morongo Casino Resort & Spa in Cabazon, California. The winner gets a shot at IBF champion Lucian Bute. But keeping with tradition, Andrade hasn’t scouted too much, leaving that business up to trainer Howard Grant.

“I never watch fights of my opponents and I’m really not a boxing fan,” he said. “Occasionally I go to fights when they invite me or when Golden Boy brings me to a fight and stuff like that, but I’m not a boxing fan. I do it because this is the way I live and this is what I’ve been doing for so long. Every time I see fights with my opponents, I always look at the good things they do, and then I start placing them in my fight and I say ‘what if he does that to me?’ (Laughs) So I hate watching them fight.”

But the fans love watching Librado Andrade fight. And though he might not possess the natural talent or stellar technique of some of his peers, his heart and determination is more than enough to make up for any shortcomings he may have when matched up against more orthodox or ‘traditional’ fighters.

“All I ask of everybody, all the fans of boxing, is to go along for the ride and enjoy boxing,” he said. “There are people that have to go through so much hardship to get in the ring to fight, and maybe they’re not the best fighters, maybe they don’t have the technique of other ones or they’re not gifted, but they’ve done double the work of others and they at least deserve the respect.”.



http://www.maxboxing.com/Gerbasi/Gerbasi031808.asp

 

People forget that Stieglitz was barely 26 when he lost to Berrio. Berrio is a dangerous puncher with a tricky style and the young Robert fell in his net when he decided to play russian roulette with Alejandro.

 

He wasn't the first to fall in Berrio's trap. Let's put it down to youthful inexperience/enthousiasm. Stieglitz better box for all his worth against LA, keeping nicely on his toes, or LA will have his way with him!

 

I would be a bit surprised because I'm not sure Stieglitz is good enough to deal with Andrade's pressure. Andrade is rightly the favourite. If he loses, it's not so much that Stieglitz was underrrated, although he probably would deserve a place in the top 10, but that Andrade was a bit overrated.