Andrade discusses Canelo’s status as cash-cow of boxing

By Boxing News - 07/05/2016 - Comments

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By Dan Ambrose: Unbeaten #1 WBC 154lb contender Demetrius Andrade (23-0, 16 KOs) says he would like to fight boxing’s cash cow Saul “Canelo” Alvarez next if he could get that fight. That’s not likely to happen though, because Andrade doesn’t fit category of the opposition that Canelo’s promoters at Golden Boy Promotions are matching him against nowadays.

They’re putting him in with smaller guys than himself, and/or fighters with decent talent but not super high quality opposition. Andrade understands why Canelo is being matched so carefully by Golden Boy’s head honcho Oscar De La Hoya. Andrade sees it as a business move by De La Hoya and Golden Boy in putting Canelo in with guys that he can surely beat so that the money can keep rolling in.

“I would say Canelo, of course,” said Andrade to Fighthype in which fighter he wants to face next. “I’m trying to put together a good opponent so I don’t have to wait for the Jermell Charlo fight. That [Charlo fight] can take place in the middle of next year. So I can’t be sitting out that long. The best will fight the best. There’s steps and levels to everything, you know,” said Andrade.

Andrade recently defeated Willie Nelson last June by a 12th round knockout in a WBC junior middleweight title eliminator match to become the mandatory challenger to WBC 154lb champion Jermell Charlo. Andrade expects to get a title shot against Charlo by mid-2017. In the meantime, Andrade would like to fight Canelo if he could get a fight against him. If not him, then someone else of quality like Jack Culcay or at the last resort, Erislandy Lara, the WBA World junior middleweight champion.

“He’s done things with Oscar De La Hoya. They’ve created a great record with him, and a good fan-base,” said Andrade. “He’s got that whole country behind him. It’s a business. Why lose a cash cow at an early age. It sucks that Canelo wants to fight blown up 140s and 147s at a catch-weight of 155 when there’s potential prospects in the 154lb division. When you’ve got one cash cow bringing in millions, you’ve got to make sure he fights where he can win. Sooner or later, he’s going to have to step in the ring with the real deal,” said Andrade.

What Andrade is saying about Canelo and the way he’s being matched by Golden Boy has to be seen as bad news for IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin, because it suggests that we may not be seeing a fight between GGG and Canelo in the fall of 2017 like De La Hoya mentioned recently. If Golden Boy’s chief priority is to keep their cash cow inning so that he can continue to bring in the big money, then we can expect to continue to see Canelo fighting pumped up 140 and 147lb fighters at 155 in the future. But as Andrade also said, “sooner or later, he’s going to have to step in the ring with the real deal.” That’s a true statement.

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De La Hoya and Golden Boy can steer their golden goose Canelo around top level opposition for a certain amount of time with designed mismatches against Liam Smith, Amir Khan, James Kirkland and Alfredo Angulo, but eventually, Canelo will need to fight a good fighter that can potentially beat him. We saw Canelo dodge defeats in getting controversial wins over Austin Trout and Erislandy Lara. However, Canelo’s luck ran out in his fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr. in 2013 with him losing that fight by a 12 round majority decision.

Surprisingly, one judge actually scored the fight a draw. That was pretty sad scoring. Golovkin has so much punching power and talent that there is little chance that he can be robbed against Canelo, because he generally takes the judges out of the equation by knocking out his opponents every time.

Unless Golden Boy could come up with some kind of survival scheme for Canelo in terms of him holding all night or running from Golovkin, it’s very likely that Canelo will taste defeat against the Kazakhstan fighter next year by a knockout loss. But if Golden Boy can come up with a good excuse for why can continue to put the fight off into the future, then Canelo can continue to make big money for them and avoid getting beaten badly by Golovkin.

Canelo will be fighting next on September 17 against WBO junior middleweight champion Liam Smith on HBO PPV. Smith is considered to be the weakest of the 154lb champions. This is a controversial move by Canelo and Golden Boy because one of the excuses for them not making the fight with Golovkin in 2016 was because they want Canelo to grow into the 160lb weight class. But by having Canelo actually move down in weight to 154, which has to be a difficult thing for him, he’s going in the opposite direction of 160. If you’re trying to get Canelo ready to fight at the full weight for the middleweight division at 160, then you move him to a catch-weight at 157 or 158lbs. You don’t move him down in weight to 154.