Luke Keeler suffered a ninth-round stoppage in his WBO Middleweight title fight against Demetrius Andrade in Miami last night.
Keeler went into the bout as the underdog and was on the canvas inside the first few seconds of the first round as Andrade came out with all guns blazing and caught him with a booming left hand.
The Dublin fighter recovered from that early knockdown but was troubled by Andrade's left throughout and was sent to the canvas again in the closing stages of the second round, hanging on for the bell after another left hook sent him sprawling.
Having survived that early onslaught, Keeler grew into the fight and began to pose some questions of his own for Andrade, but the defending champion was able to come up with all the answers and never looked to be in any danger.
The end came in closing stages of the ninth round when, caught up against the ropes, Keeler was again hit with a thunderous left and dazed. The Ballyfermot fighter remained on his feet but took further punishment before the referee finally stepped in to end things.
Wasn't my night tonight I gave it my best shot and wasn’t enough , fair play to @boobooboxing great champion, great experience. If I didn’t think I could improve I would retire but getting better each camp under my… https://t.co/tKXrK2qAOR
— Coolhand Luke (@luke_keeler) January 31, 2020
Afterwards Keeler paid tribute to his opponent and coach and wrote on Instagram: "Wasn't my night tonight I gave it my best shot and wasn’t enough, fair play to Andrade great champion, great experience.
"If I didn’t think I could improve I would retire but getting better each camp under my friend and coach Pete Taylor so I’ll go again.
"I will get back up there, thanks to everyone for kind messages and support I'll get back to everyone over next couple days, the support has been heart warming."
Meanwhile Andrade is once again setting his sights on WBO super middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders.
The two were scheduled to fight in October 2018 before Saunders tested positive for a banned substance and the bout was scrapped.
Andrade remains keen to make that fight happen and afterwards said: "I want to go up to 168, fight Billy Joe 'Joke-Ass' Saunders my next fight, and that's what I'm looking to do"
"Since Eddie [Hearn] has that big book and that big bank, well, offer Billy Joe Saunders that check, so I could whoop his ass too."
