By Jason Marchetti at ringside
Photos: Emily Harney

Former 154lb world champion Demetrius “Boo Boo” Andrade (26-0, 16 KOs) claimed the vacant WBO middleweight title with a dominant twelve round unanimous decision over Walter Kautondokwa (17-1, 16 KOs) on Saturday night at the TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts. Andrade dropped Kautondokwa four times in the first 4 rounds in stunning fashion.

The taller, heavier, much larger Kautondokwa was slow to move and react and Andrade took advantage early, landing flush left power shots to the head.

During the first knockdown, Andrade’s two-punch combo caused Kautondokwa to fall awkwardly, that Andrade kept swinging and hit him while he was on the canvas in which no foul was called.

In the 3rd, Andrade moved so quickly and elusively that when Kautondokwa spun around to keep up with him, he ate a monsterous straight left hand which sent him to the canvas again.

Andrade turned up the heat in the 4th round sending Kautondokwa to the floor twice more, however, one of them should have been called a double knockdown. Although Andrade was dominant during the exchange, he did get caught with a punch and his glove hit the canvas before Kautondokwa struggled to get up himself. In the end, it wouldn’t matter, as he totally dominated the rest of the bout. Andrade seemed to take his foot off the gas a bit and test Kautondokwa in the later rounds to which the challenger proved durable. The final scores were 120-104 (twice) and 119-105.

After the bout, Andrade said, “We are going to build on this. I wanted to fight Saunders, but Kautondokwa was tough too. I’ll sit down with Eddie Hearn and decide what’s next. I want to continue to fight the best!”