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By Dan Rafael of espn.com
Junior middleweight contender Demetrius Andrade is pumped up to be fighting for a world title. He gets to face Vanes Martirosyan for a vacant belt on Sept. 7 (HBO) on the Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.-Brian Vera undercard at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.
“I am looking forward to this fight and have been waiting for this fight ever since I walked into the gym at age 7,” Andrade said. “I always wanted to be champion of the world, and on Sept. 7th, I will be crowned champion.”
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Andrade (19-0, 13 KOs) was supposed to travel to Ukraine to challenge Zaurbek Baysangurov for his 154-pound belt on July 6, but Baysangurov suffered a back injury, withdrew from the bout and was eventually stripped as per the terms of the purse bid that had taken place a couple of months earlier.
That left Andrade, 25, of Providence, R.I., to face Martirosyan, the next leading available contender, for the vacant belt.
Andrade was a star amateur who won a gold medal in the 2007 world amateur championships and was also a 2008 U.S. Olympian. But in Martirosyan (33-0-1, 21 KOs), Andrade will be facing another fighter with a strong amateur background. Martirosyan, 27, of Glendale, Calif., was a 2004 U.S. Olympian.
“I wanted to win an Olympic gold medal, and since they took that from me, I am going to take this world title,” Andrade said. “I was a 2008 Olympian, and he made it in 2004. I will show him that if I was around in 2003 and 2004, he would not have made the team.”
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