By Jake Donovan

Perhaps it’s better that Maciej Sulecki has grown to truly dislike Demetrius Andrade. 

The veteran contender from Poland was willing to entertain the prospect of a friendly rivalry with the unbeaten southpaw ahead of his first career title fight. Instead, it’s a truly a matter of where they can fight out their feelings in the ring when the collide Saturday evening at Dunkin Donuts Center in Andrade’s hometown of Providence, Rhode Island.

“Before I came to the United States, I had a great amount of respect for Andrade,” claimed Sulecki (28-1, 11KOs) ahead of their title fight, which streams live on DAZN (Saturday, 9:00pm ET; undercard stream at 7:00pm ET). “But once I got (to Providence), I lost all respect for him. He just talks too much.”

That is something Andrade (27-0, 17KOs) himself won’t deny. The 2008 U.S. Olympian and three-time titlist in two weight divisions has never been at a loss for words, and has been all the way in his element since signing with DAZN and Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing USA last summer.

Saturday will mark Andrade’s third fight in just over eight months, coming in stark contrast to a time when he was begging two co-promoters (Joe DeGuardia’s Star Boxing and Artie Pelullo’s Banner Promotions) for any fight date.

There were issues both ways—Andrade attempting to sign with Roc Nation Sports while still under contract with the aforementioned outfits didn’t at all help matters any, not to mention killing a network deal with Showtime that was very much on the table. Still, that business is now in the past, with Friday marking one year since the unbeaten southpaw bought out his current contract to sign with Matchroom.

The plan is to commemorate that anniversary with a spectacular hometown showcase performance on Saturday.

“Good luck to Sulecki,” Andrade noted at Thursday’s pre-fight press conference. “I hope he puts on a good performance then gets his ass whooped.”

The session ended with the combatants nearly coming to blows, or at least so suggested the challenger’s body language.

“Why you wanna fight for free?” questioned Andrade during the obligatory staredown ultimately gone wrong. “Save that for (fight night).” 

Sulecki enters the fight on the heels of a thrilling 10-round win over Gabriel Rosado this past March. The thriller part of it came late in the bout, after the Polish middleweight had scored two knockdowns and was well on his way to a win before suffering two knockdowns of his own in a disastrous ninth round. He escaped Rosado’s Philadelphia hometown with a points win and his middleweight title shot still intact.

“(Andrade) thinks he is as good as the other great fighters like GGG (former middleweight titlist Gennadiy Golovkin) but he is not,” insists Sulecki, who has won two straight since his lone career loss, a 12-round decision to Daniel Jacobs last April. “I know one thing about him, and it’s that he doesn’t respect anyone. He is disrespectful.” 

Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox