Among the chaos that was Canelo Alvarez vs. Daniel Jacobs on May 4, Matchroom Boxing formally announced Demetrius Andrade's next middleweight title defense.
Andrade will defend his WBO 160-pound title against Maciej Sulecki on June 29 at the Dunkin Donuts Center in Providence, Rhode Island. The fight will take be streamed on DAZN in the United States and on Sky Sports in the United Kingdom.
This will be Andrade's second world title defense since winning the then-vacant belt back in October 2018. In that title win, Andrade easily won a 12-round unanimous decision against Walter Kautondokwa in the main event of a Matchroom Boxing USA card from Boston.
Originally, Andrade was supposed to face Billy Joe Saunders for the title, but Saunders was denied a license to box after failing a drug test weeks prior to the fight. Since that win against Kautondokwa, Andrade defended his title back in January at Madison Square Garden when he defeated former title challenger Artur Akavov.
Sulecki is on a two-fight win streak, last defeating Gabriel Rosado in March to win the WBO International middleweight title. Sulecki was always planned to be Andrade's next opponent, but there was a short period of uncertainty about whether or not Sulecki would fight for the title after it was revealed that he suffered a hairline fracture in his right hand. Despite reports indicating that he would not be fit in time to fight Andrade, Sulecki remained adamant that he would be ready in time to box for the middleweight title.
The winner of the fight becomes the last remaining piece in the conversation of undisputed middleweight champion. While Andrade currently holds the WBO title, Alvarez now reigns the WBA "Super," WBC and IBF middleweight titles after beating Jacobs in the main event of a boxing card from the T-Mobile Arena.
