Quebec City - Ring veteran Eric Lucas is not taking the easy route in his attempt to be a world champion for the second time in his career.
Lucas (39-7-3), the former World Boxing Council super-middleweight champion, will face off against tough Mexican Librado Andrade in a 10-bout Friday night at the Pepsi Colisee.
It is the Montreal native's second fight since he ended a nearly four-year retirement in December. A victory would be the 40th of his career.
"I came back for big fights, not just to pad my record," the 38-year-old said Thursday.
It is a formidable task for Lucas, who held the WBC belt from 2001 to 2003 and retired in 2006 following a failed attempt to capture the WBA title from Mikkel Kessler in Denmark.
Lucas, who lives in Magog, Que., won in his first fight back when he knocked out Ramon Pedro Moyano, son of ring legend Carlos Monzon, in the fourth round. But this will be a more difficult fight against a seasoned veteran.
Andrade (28-3) is known for his near-victory over Lucian Bute of Montreal in 2008 when he floored the IBF champ late in the 12th round but ran out of time to finish him off. Bute won the rematch easily in four rounds in November before a full house of 16,000 spectators in Quebec City.
"I had originally thought that I'd take a tuneup fight closer to home, but when the offer of Eric came through, we knew it was a fight we couldn't turn down," said Andrade, who will make his fifth trip to Quebec and fourth in a row.
The second loss to Bute marked the first time Andrade was stopped before the limit in his career. All three of his defeats have been in world title fights, as he also dropped a 12-round decision to Kessler in 2007.
"All I want to do in this fight is put the loss against Bute behind me," said Andrade. "I want to prove to everyone that I still belong at the top of the division and deserve big fights.
"A win against Lucas puts me back on the right track for another title shot."
Andrade, 31, likes to move straight forward, relentlessly pursuing his opponents. He's willing to absorb shots in order to land some of his own.
Lucas is a more technical fighter, a counter-puncher with a strong chin.
Lucas' trainer Stephane Larouche said the winner will be in position to challenge for a significant fight right away.
"Eric didn't come back to be an opponent," said Larouche. "Losing to a guy like this, there wouldn't be any shame in it, but if you beat a guy like Librado Andrade, you propel yourself into a big fight right away."
Lucas also trains Bute for promoter InterBox, so he knows Andrade is a tough cookie.
"When you know him and respect him, he is beatable," said Larouche, "Yusaf Mack went in and dropped him, dropped him hard. He thought it was going to be an easy fight but ended up being stopped himself.
"Eric is always good with guys who stand in front of him. It will be a matchup of two guys with iron jaws. It should be a hell of a fight to watch."
Andrade has been in a similar situation. In 2006, he travelled to Montreal and defeated former WBO middleweight champ Otis Grant, who was also in the midst of a comeback after a long layoff due to injury. That bout snapped Grant's seven-match winning streak and sent him into retirement.
Lucas's heyday was earlier this decade when he won the title with a thrilling win over Glenn Catley and defended it three times before losing a disputed decision to Marcus Beyer in Germany. Attempts to win another world championship belt fell short with losses to tough Australian Danny Green and then to Kessler.
The co-feature has top-10 ranked middleweight Renan St-Juste (21-1-1, 14 KO) of Repentingy, Que., against Marcus Upshaw (12-4-1, 6 KO). St-Juste scored an impressive knockout win in April against highly ranked Dionisio Miranda and hopes another win will propel him to a world title fight.
Also fighting Friday night but across the Atlantic, Antonin Decarie (23-0, 7 KO) of Montreal will battle former world champion Souleymane M'baye (38-3-1, 21 KO) in Paris for the interim WBA welterweight title.
It will be the biggest bout of 27-year-old Decarie's career, with the winner moving into position to challenge WBA champion Vyacheslav Senchenko of Ukraine. M'baye is ranked as the No. 2 contender and Decarie No. 3 by the WBA. Top-ranked Floyd Mayweather was not available.
"Like me, M'baye is a good technician," Decarie said recently. "I think that will be a cerebral fight, a chess game.
"He has good experience at the international level and I think that fight will be very interesting for the crowd. This is the opportunity of a lifetime."
M'baye, 35, visited Montreal in 2006, losing a 12-round decision to Herman Ngoudjo.
Decarie, a former Canadian Olympian, is coming off a TKO victory over Terrence Cauthen in October.
