By Dan Ambrose: After easily dispatching an overmatched Angel Hernandez by a 2nd round two knockdown performance last Friday night, unbeaten junior middleweight contender Demetrius Andrade (16-0, 11 KO’s) used the opportunity to tell ESPN2 that he’d be willing to move up to middleweight to face WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (45-0-1, 31 KO’s) if he’d be open to fighting him.

Andrade, 23, said “I had my promoter try to get me some top names like Canelo [Saul Alvarez] and [James] Kirkland, but I believe they turned me down because of my style, and they know I’m coming to win. But I’d step to 160 to fight Chavez if he wants it.”

That sounds a great fight, Chavez Jr. vs. Andrade. It would certainly be a lot better fight than watching Chavez Jr. beat guys like Peter Manfredo Jr. and Marco Antonio Rubio. I think Chavez Jr. would be totally up for that fight, but I also think Chavez’s promoter Bob Arum would immediately rule Andrade out, likely saying something to the effect that Andrade would being nothing to the table because he’s not a big name.

Arum would be right, of course, but I’m not sure if that’s what would be the real deciding factor in Andrade not getting the fight. I think the more accurate reason would be because Andrade would have an excellent chance of beating Chavez Jr, even if he was out-weighed by 20 pounds by Chavez Jr. Rubio and Manfredo Jr. weren’t popular fighters, yet they got fights with Chavez Jr.

That suggests that popularity has very little to do with getting a fight against Chavez Jr. It might work that way with other fighters in other divisions, but with Chavez Jr., you don’t really need to have a large fan base in order to get a fight with him. But that would still likely be the excuse Arum makes for not matching Chavez Jr. against the unbeaten Andrade.