LIBRADO ANDRADE

updated March 23, 2008

If you ever get the chance to check out La Habra, California's Librado Andrade in the ring, about the only people you'll catch complaining afterwards are his battered opponents, victims of his two fisted fury in the ring.

For the soft-spoken 29-year-old though, his action-packed style is something he just can't explain, but he thinks it may have something to do with his brother, fellow pro Enrique Ornelas.

"I've always thought that he was the one that had the power," said Andrade, who has scored 20 knockouts in his 26 wins. "It's not that I have the power but that I'm more consistent with it. As soon as I get in there, I just get blinded and I start fighting and forget about everything else. I always grew up knowing that he hits harder than me. I guess that's like a shadow over me that says, "I have to hit harder because my brother hits harder than me." That's in my mind all the time, so I go in there and just start hitting."

The Leon Guanajuato, Mexico-born Andrade has done all right for himself so far in his pro career, which has been in stark contrast to his amateur career, which was forgettable.

"We did real poor in the amateurs," said Andrade. "But it was nice because sometimes the guys we used to fight would tell us that we actually hurt them."

After fighting from the age of 9 to 13, Andrade and his brother took a sabbatical from the sport for four years as the two concentrated on high school. Once the brothers graduated, though, the boxing bug started calling again.

"We came back to the boxing because we left for about four years," said Andrade. "We went to high school and we didn't fight, so we played other sports. We said, let's go back and train. We started training, harder than before, and they told us to give it a shot. So we thought to ourselves, if we do it, great; if not, we'll just find a good job and start working. But as we fought the first time and did okay, we said this is not a bad way of living. It's real hard, but we had it in us that we could fight, so we fight."

Luckily, Andrade's decision to make a go at pro boxing came with the approval of his family, which includes three brothers (including Enrique) and three sisters. Well, at least approval from most of the family.

"They encourage us a lot," said Andrade. "We have an older brother that always tells us that we're not made for boxing. He tells us to find a good job and don't fight. But other than that, my other brothers and my sisters really cheer for us and want us to go a long way."

Knowing the dangers of the sport and the short lifespan in it for many, Andrade kept his day job at Jack in The Box until recently, when his pro career really took off. And his dreams are the dreams of any pro fighter.

"Our goal is to become champions," said Andrade. "That's the goal of any fighter. This year we just want to do good with better opponents. Then we want to get to the top. We don't want to fail ourselves. We don't want to put so many high goals on ourselves and fail. That could discourage us. We don't want to do that. We take each fight at a time, do better, and then we'll see. But I think we can be top ten fighters and I'm really confident that we can make it there, seeing our levels now. Being a world champion is hard but we see ourselves up there."

So far, it's been a smooth ride for Andrade.

He turned pro on August 14, 1999 with a four round points win over Marcus Harvey. Seven of his next eight foes hit the canvas, with only Harvey (in a rematch loss) going the distance. And unlike many young fighters, Andrade used a good ol' fashioned body attack to render his opponents helpless. It was a tribute to one of his boxing heroes, Mexican legend Julio Cesar Chavez.

"I used to like Chavez a lot," said Andrade. My older brother used to go the Chavez fights and he used to take us. He used to go because he liked to party, but we would pay attention to the fights. Ricardo "Finito" Lopez, I also like a lot. Plus other fighters I like are Oscar, and Roy Jones Jr., guys with different styles."

On June 19, 2001, at the Del Mar Fairgrounds, Andrade got his first national television exposure when he impressively decisioned Jimmy Hagar over six rounds.

"Two years ago I fought on TV for the first time and I did real good," remembered Andrade. "I was listening to the commentators of the fight telling us that we could go a long way if we keep fighting. Just hearing those comments is a real nice feeling."

Nice feelings aren't what his opponents experience after stepping in the ring with Andrade. In June of 2002, Librado scored the biggest win to date of his career when he defeated Pat Lawlor in two rounds in Ontario, California. The veteran Lawlor is best remembered for defeating two legendary champions, Roberto Duran and Wilfred Benitez.

Since the Lawlor fight, Andrade (who has also worked as a sparring partner for his promoter, Oscar De La Hoya) has been on a tear, winning six bouts in a row, five by knockout.

The biggest win of the streak was on March 19, 2004, when Librado dropped previously unbeaten Willie Stewart to the canvas four times en route to a unanimous 12 round decision win that earned Andrade the vacant NABA super middleweight title.

On June 24, Andrade added another belt to his waist when he dominated veteran contender Tito Mendoza, knocking him down three times en route to a lopsided 12 round unanimous decision to win the NABO 168-pound championship.

In September, Andrade walked through tough Vitali Koptiko, knocking him down three times en route to a dominating second round TKO victory, and veteran Thomas Reid was the next to fall under the heavy hands of Librado in December, as he was stopped in four rounds.

2005 picked up where 2004 left off for Librado, and on February 4, Andrade, who celebrates each win with a backflip off the ropes that you have to see to believe, easily stopped durable contender Nicolas Cervera in just three rounds.

Unfortunately, a year long layoff sidelined this budding contender, but in 2006, he returned with a vengeance, skyrocketing to the top contender's spot at 168 pounds with a seventh round TKO of former world title challenger Otis Grant, and a first round knockout of usually durable Richard Grant (no relation to Otis).

These victories earned Librado a shot at WBA/WBC super middleweight champion Mikkel Kessler on March 24, 2007, and though he lost a hard-fought 12 round decision, he earned respect for his gallant effort in defeat, and rebounded in style less than four months later with a second round stoppage of Ted Muller, and then in October of 2007 with a seventh round stoppage of Yusaf Mack that earned him the USBA super middleweight title.

And even though his fury in the ring is intimidating, his calm demeanor outside of it makes him an ideal ambassador for the sport. Librado Andrade likes it that way.

"Everybody's different, and people look up to you when you're a something," said Andrade. "Like if you're a sportsman or you fight, especially if you're a respected fighter - not one that talks a lot or goes messing around with people. To be a respected fighter, that's what I like. People say, 'how can you be a fighter? You're such a nice person. You don't look like a fighter.' I think that's nice."