By Allan Fox: Unbeaten Demetrius Andrade (25-0, 16 KOs) is pushing hard to be the replacement opponent for Gennady ‘GGG’ Golovkin (37-0-1, 33 KOs) if his still scheduled May 5th rematch against Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez is canceled by the Nevada State Athletic Commission.
Andrade wants the fight with Golovkin, and he’s willing to step in and face him on short notice. Golovkin’s promoter Tom Loeffler will likely make a stable at putting together a unification fight with WBO middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders (26-0, 12 KOs), but that’s not too likely to happen.
Saunders is injured right now, and he has a fight scheduled against Martin Murray on June 23 in the UK.
Andrade has fought only 4 times since 2014 in beating these guys: Alantez Fox, Jack Culcay, Willie Nelson and Dario Fabian Puncheta. The only decent out of that bunch is Culcay, and Andrade had a lot of problems against him last year in winning a controversial 12 round decision.
”It would be an honor to be able to share the ring with @GGGBoxing,” Andrade said on his Twitter. ”I made the move to Middleweight to test my skills and talents against the best! GGG is the unified champ at 160 and I want this fight, move out the way Canelo, Time for Boo Boo to shock the world.”
It would take HBO and K2 Promotions too many weeks/months to build up a fight between Golovkin and Andrade for the fight to attract a lot of interest in the boxing world. What would make it difficult to make the Golovkin-Andrade fight a big one is the lack of notoriety for Andrade? He’s not done anything with his career other than win a couple of belts against weak opposition at 154. Andrade barely beat Vanes Martirosyan by a 12 round split decision in in November 2013 to win the vacant World Boxing Organization 154 lb. title.
Andrade then had an easy defense of the WBO belt against Brian Rose. Andrade didn’t defend the WBO junior middleweight title and was stripped by the sanctioning body on July 31, 2015. The WBO gave up on Andrade when they saw that he was just sitting on the belt without defending it for a year. Andrade blew it. He then beat up an unknown fighter named Darior Pucheta, and then defeated fringe contender Willie Nelson.
GGG vs. Andrade would need to be moved off of HBO PPV and placed on normal HBO, because the boxing public isn’t going to want to pay to see GGG fight an obscure guy that only hardcore fans are familiar with.
It would be a huge step down in class if Golovkin went from fighting Canelo on May 5th to facing the 30-year-old Andrade. That would be like Golovkin fighting Dominic Wade again. Andrade hasn’t even established himself as a quality middleweight yet, as he just moved up to the 160 lb. weigh class in his last fight against Alantez Fox last October. Before that, Andrade was struggling badly to barely beat Jack Culcay by a 12 round split decision last March in a fight that could have gone either way.
Andrade has unfinished business with Culcay. Moving on from that fight is like moving on from a loss. Andrade needs to go back and prove that he can beat Culcay without controversy. Andrade’s fight with Fox was very boring to watch, as was his fight with Culcay. Golovkin could do much better than Andrade for a fight on HBO. Andrade does a lot of holding and moving.
Andrade was supposed to fight Sergiy Derevyanchenko. I don’t know why Andrade didn’t fight Derevyanchenko, because that’s a fight that he should have taken to prove that he can beat him. It’s too bad Andrade didn’t take the fight with Derevyanchenko, because if he beat this guy, he’d have his first quality win of his career and he’d be someone that Golovkin could take seriously.
Right now, Andrade’s resume is too weak. His wins have come against fringe level fighters or guys that didn’t rate being ranked at No.1. Andrade should fight Jermall or Jermell Charlo first before calling out Golovkin. I don’t think Andrade would beat Charlo or Derevyanchenko. If Andrade can’t even beat Culcay without controversy, then that suggests that he’s not in the same league as the likes of Charlo and Derevyanchenko, and not Golovkin.
Saunders is not a great fight for Golovkin either, because he’s a pure defensive specialist. That would be 12 rounds of running and showboating by Saunders. Golovkin would likely not even bother with a fighter like Saunders if not for his interest in adding his WBO middleweight belt to his collection. That won’t be an exciting fight either for Golovkin.
Golovkin and his promoter Tom Loeffler should be looking to face Derevyanchenko, Daniel Jacobs or Jermall Charlo as his replacement for Canelo on May 5. Those guys will make it exciting. Andrade and Saunders would be disappointing opponents.
Canelo Alvarez tested positive for clenbuterol on two occasions last February during VADA’s tests in that month. The Nevada Commission has scheduled a hearing on April 18 to decide if they’re going to give Canelo a suspension or possibly clear him and allow the Canelo-Golovkin 2 fight to take place on the 5th of May. Golovkin doesn’t want his training to be for nothing, so he’s determined to stay on the May 5th date even if Canelo is suspended for a second time by the Commission. Canelo has already been handed a temporary suspension of 3 weeks by the Commission for his two failed drug tests.