By Jeff Aranow: Demetrius Andrade says that Saul Canelo Alvarez is destined to meet up with him now that they’re both fighting on DAZN. Andrade (26-0, 16 KOs) won the vacant World Boxing Organization middleweight title last Saturday night in beating Walter Kautondokwa by a 12 round unanimous decision, and he’s now one of the three 160 lb champions in the middleweight division.
More importantly, Andrade fights on DAZN, as does Canelo, who signed a 5-year, 11-fight deal for $365 million lat week with the streaming platform. Since some fighters aren’t going to be able to fight on DAZN due to them fighting on networks that won’t let them fight on another platform, then it could limit the guys that will be available to Canelo and Andrade to fight.
Andrade, 30, is hoping that the limitations that Canelo has on DAZN will force him to turn his fights towards him sooner or later. Andrade is going to need to start fighting better opposition and being more active with his career for him to get Canelo and GGG to fight him. Fighting only once a year isn’t going to do it for Andrade. His last two fights have been against complete unknowns in Kautondokwa and Alantez Fox.
“I said that if you want to fight Canelo, you want to fight the middleweight world champions, you have to be with DAZN. But that’s the truth,” Andrade said. “You know, if you want to fight Canelo, you have to be on DAZN. Whether that’s fighting Canelo on DAZN or fighting on DAZN previously,” Andrade said.
Andrade is seen as paper champion after winning the vacant World Boxing Organization middleweight title last Saturday night over Kautondokwa (17-1, 16 KOs). Andrade didn’t fight the previous champion Billy Joe Saunders (26-0, 12 KOs), who would have been a handful for him. Right now, Andrade offers very little for a fight against Canelo or Triple G. Those guys might as well fight super middleweights than waste time fighting Andrade and receive no credit for the win.
Andrade’s promoter Eddie Hearn hopes that he can get Canelo to fight both of his middleweights in Daniel Jacobs and Andrade. Canelo is already fighting Hearn’s fighter WBA ‘regular’ middleweight champion Rocky Fields on December 15 on DAZN. Jacobs will be under contract with HBO until the end of December. Hearn wants to match Jacobs against Canelo in May of next year, and he thinks he’ll agree to do it. Hearn might be dreaming, however. Canelo fights whoever he wants. He’s not going to make a career out of fighting all of Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing USA fighters just to please the British promoter.
Eddie Hearn thinks Canelo Alvarez MUST fight Demetrius Andrade
“We’ve got an 11-fight deal with Canelo, so there is no way he will not fight Demetrius Andrade in those 11 fights,” Hearn said of Canelo. “He has to, because he’s going to run out of guys. But he has to keep winning as well.”
I don’t think it matters whether Canelo is with DAZN or not. The other fighters that compete on networks like ESPN and Showtime will want to fight Canelo no matter what, and those networks likely won’t put up a roadblock to the fights happening, since it will bring in a lot of ratings for them even though their fighter would be on two platforms instead of just one.
Andrade has too many things going against him for him to get a fight against Canelo or Golovkin. Hearn thinks he was clever in signing the 30-year-old Andrade, but he might be wasting his time, because he’s not a star and he’s getting up there in age already. These are the things that will likely prevent Andrade from ever getting a fight against Canelo or Golovkin:
– Southpaw stance
– Slick fighting style
– Fights rarely
– No fan base to speak of
– Lacks charisma
– Not a great speaker
– Too mobile
In sum, Andrade is likely going to be ignored by Canelo and Golovkin for good. It doesn’t matter that he’s with DAZN and inked with Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing USA stable. Andrade has too many negatives going against him to get fights against the stars at 160.
The fighters that Hearn can likely match up against Andrade are the following guys:
– Jermall Charlo
– Billy Joe Saunders
– Jermell Charlo
– Daniel Jacobs
– Sergiy Derevyanchenko
– Maciej Sulecki
– Jarrett Hurd
– Erislandy Lara
– Jaime Munguia
Andrade will be able to fight the tough guys that are going to go after him, and look to knock him out. The problem is, these aren’t popular fighters, and there will be plenty of risk for Andrade in all of those matches.
“As far as Golovkin’s concerned, I can’t tell you what decision he’s going to make, but I know Demetrius would love a fight with Golovkin as well, and that would be an opportunity for Golovkin to win a world title so,” Hearn said.
Right now, it’s wishful thinking on Hearn’s part to dream of Golovkin fighting Andrade for his WBO belt. I don’t see it happening right now. Golovkin wants a third fight against Canelo Alvarez. If Golovkin has to stay busy and wait for that fight, then he’ll either face the Daniel Jacobs vs. Sergiy Derevyanchenko, face Rob Brant for the WBO ‘regular’ middleweight title or take on the likes of Jermall Charlo. Andrade is likely the last option that Golovkin would take, seeing that there’s no money in a fight against him. Andrade would be like another Vanes Martirosyan level opponent. It would be a waste of time for GGG to fight Andrade. Golovkin would be doing Hearn a big favor in fighting Andrade, but he would get nothing out of the fight other than winning a paper title.
“He ain’t gonna have the opportunity to win a world title, because I’ma whoop his a–,” Andrade said about Golovkin.
Andrade needs to crawl before he can walk as far as opposition. He’s not in the position to dictate what Golovkin will do in his career. At best, Hearn might be able to get him someone like Saunders or Sulecki to fight in his next defense in January of 2019, as long as his injured shoulder holds together through the next training camp. Golovkin isn’t gong to target Andrade though in his first fight in 2019. Tom Loeffler will probably ignore Andrade and focus his attention on getting bigger names.
“Like Eddie said, he has to fight me if he’s gonna be with DAZN for, what was it, five years, 11 fights, or something like that,” Andrade said. “I mean, come on now. Eddie got to do his job, I got to do my job, and that’s win.”
Andrade needs to do his job by holding onto his WBO title for a few years, fight frequently, stop moving as much inside the ring, and face better opposition. Andrade’s best win of his career was against Martirosyan, and he’s now been in the pro ranks for 10 years. When you’ve been a pro for that long and all you have to show for yourself is a fight against Martirosyan, then you’re going to have a problem when you try to get the top fighters to face you. Hearn has a lot of pull in the fights he can make for his guys in his promotional company, but he’s not a miracle worker.