Andrade says DAZN tried to make GGG-Andrade fight, but GGG didn’t want it

By Boxing News - 06/12/2019 - Comments

Image: Andrade says DAZN tried to make GGG-Andrade fight, but GGG didn't want it

By Aragon Garcia: Demetrius Andrade reveals that DAZN tried to make a fight between him and Gennady Golovkin as soon as got on board with them, but GGG and his promoter Tom Loeffler rejected the fight. Andrade says Golden Boy Promotions boss Oscar De La Hoya know what’s happening, and that’s why they told GGG to go win a world title first before he starts asking for a trilogy fight against Saul Canelo Alvarez.

Andrade: I wouldn’t be fighting Sulecki if GGG had agreed to fight me

The unbeaten WBO middleweight champion Andrade (27-0, 17 KOs) says he wouldn’t be fighting Maciej Sulecki next on June 29 if Golovkin had agreed to fight him instead of Steve Rolls, who he stopped in the fourth round last Saturday night on June 4 at Madison Square Garden in New York.

“I wouldn’t be fighting Maciej Sulecki and GGG Boxing wouldn’t have fought Steve Rolls if GGG would have accepted a fight with me,” said Andrade on his social media. “GGG is #1 in the World Boxing Organization. He was given the opportunity to fight me and said NO WAY! #TRUTH #TallBlackandHandsome #ATeam.”

A fight between the undefeated Andrade and the once beaten Golovkin (39-1-1, 35 KOs) would have been a great one last Saturday night. Golovkin could have given Golden Boy Promotions CEO Oscar De La Hoya and Canelo Alvarez what they were asking for with their request that Triple G win a world title first before he came back to them looking to get a trilogy fight. Unfortunately, Golovkin did the opposite. He fought a fighter Steve Rolls (19-1, 10 KOs) that was ranked dead last in the World Boxing Council’s top tier ranking at #15.

Rolls came into the fight with GGG undefeated, but his most notable victory of his 10-year pro career was against journeyman KeAndrae Leatherwood. It made a lot of fans unhappy with Golovkin that he chose to fight Rolls rather than one of the top fighters in the 160-pound divsion. The fans would have been fine with Golovkin facing someone like Sergiy Derevyanchenko, Danny Jacobs, Rob Brant, Jermall Charlo, Jarrett Hurd, Andrade, Tony Harrison, Jaime Munguia or Jermell Charlo.

It just looks bad in the eyes of fans that Golovkin picked out a fighter that is ranked so low, and had never fought a good contender during his career. What made Golovkin look especially bad is Canelo and De La Hoya told him ahead of time that they wanted him to win a world title in order to give them a reason to make the trilogy fight in September. Golovkin still chose Rolls, even though he would be risking losing the fight with Canelo. Did Golovkin not believe Canelo and De La Hoya when they said he needed to win a world title or did he simply think that DAZN will be the one that makes the decision whether the trilogy fight takes place in September?

Andrade: DAZN USA tried to make the GGG fight with me as soon as he signed

“TRUTH, DAZN USA tried to make the fight between GGG Boxing and I as soon as he signed. Tom Loeffler and GGG said, ‘absolutely not! We aren’t fighting Andrade in our first DAZN fight,'” said Andrade. Oscar De La Hoya [and] Canelo know that, which is why they’re telling GGG to get a belt!”

It makes sense for Golovkin to have taken a tune-up last Saturday. He had been out of the ring for nine months, so it’s understandable why he would want to take a tune-up. However, boxing fans expected a better opponent than what they saw in Rolls, who had never cut his teeth on an upper level middleweight or super middleweight in his career. It’s all well and good that Loeffler was highly complimentary of Rolls after the fight at the post-fight news conference. The problem is Rolls had no experience against first tier fighters before, and he was old at 35 not to have experience. It looked like a cherry pick on Golovkin’s part in fighting Rolls.

A good tune-up for Golovkin would have been someone like Sergiy Derevyanchenko, Daniel Jacobs, Rob Brant, Maciej Sulecki or Matvey Korobov. Those would have been suitable opponents for GGG to fight in a tune-up.

DAZN recently signed Golovkin to a six-fight contract. They’re paying him a lot of money to fight guys like Rolls. How long will they agree to let Golovkin fight guys like that? It’s not realistic to assume that Canelo is going to fight Golovkin in all five of his remaining bouts of his contract with DAZN. The streaming giant would likely be happy if Canelo and Golovkin did that, but it’s not going to happen. They’ll definitely get at least one fight between them, but probably not more than that.

If Canelo beats GGG in the third fight, that’ll be the end of it. Canelo isn’t going to just keep fighting Golovkin to help him get a golden parachute with his retirement. Canelo wants to fight other guys. More importantly, Canelo wants Golovkin to keep striving, and showing that he’s trying to achieve things with his career instead of just taking soft fighters in between the fights with Alvarez. There’s a lot of fans that think Golovkin is just cashing out at this point with his career. They think the only serious fighter that Golovkin wants to fight is Canelo, and that’s just because it’ll bring him a lot of money. It’s a win-win for Golovkin, even if he loses again to Canelo.

If Canelo fights Callum Smith in September, it’ll put GGG in tough position

Canelo and Golden Boy Promotions are meeting this week to decide on who his next opponent will be in September. De La Hoya has already made it clear that they’re going to make Golovkin wait for the trilogy fight with Canelo. If that turns out to be the case, then Golovkin will need to fight someone else.

This would be an opportunity for GGG to quiet his critics by facing the likes of Jermall Charlo, Andrade or Danny Jacobs. However, given Golovkin’s comments about there being unbeaten contenders in the middleweight rankings for him to potentially fight, it means he could face someone like Kamil Szeremeta, Jason Quigley or Esquivia Falcao.

If Golovkin chooses any of them, he’s going to invite massive criticism from boxing fans. If he chooses to pick from the bottom again like he his management did in selecting Rolls at #15 with the WBC, it’s going to be even worse. Loeffler said recently that Golovkin has the final say in who he faces. It’s unknown why Loeffler said that. Was he distancing himself from the selection of Rolls as Golovkin’s opponent last Saturday? Loeffler had to know going in that Rolls would be a poor option for Golovkin to fight.

Canelo has some great choices for his next fight in September. He doesn’t need Golovkin.

Canelo can fight one of these fighters in September:

– Errol Spence Jr.

– Callum Smith

– Sergey Kovalev

– Demetrius Andrade

– Sergiy Derevyanchenko

– Caleb Plant

Some boxing fans believe GGG is just looking for easy paydays against guys that present no problems for him. GGG’s critics point out that he didn’t fight Derevyanchenko, Andre Ward, Andrade and Erislandy Lara. These are all guys that wanted to fight GGG in the past.

Side note: It’s unclear what happened with Golovkin’s Twitter account. It appears to be no longer active.