By Matt Lieberman: Demetrius Andrade reportedly has heard nothing about a negotiations for a unification fight against Saul Canelo Alvarez despite talk that he his promoters at Golden Boy Promotions were interested in making that fight. Andrade (28-0, 17 KOs) told Sports Illustrated that he’s not been told anything about a fight with WBA/WBC middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez (52-1-2, 35 KOs), but he’s definitely interested in making that contest happen.
Canelo was stripped of his IBF title last week after his promoters failed to make a deal with his IBF mandatory Sergiy Derevyanchenko’s promoters. It was widely believed that Canelo would then move on and look to fight WBO champion Demetrius for his belt, but it doesn’t look like that’s happening. Andrade hasn’t heard anything, which is a pretty good indication that Canelo won’t be fighting him next.
Radio silence on any Canelo-Andrade negotiations, and @BooBooAndrade tells @SInow he has not been told anything about them. Andrade very clear, however: He wants @Canelo, believes he has earned the fight with Canelo. Would be a significant unification fight.
— Chris Mannix (@SIChrisMannix) August 5, 2019
If Canelo doesn’t fight Andrade, that would make him the third fighter that the Mexican superstar WON’T be fighting next. The others are as follows:
- Sergiy Derevyanchenko
- Gennady Golovkin
- Sergey Kovalev
When you rule those guys out of the equation for Canelo’s next fight on DAZN, it doesn’t leave much. Jamie Munguia’s name is being mentioned as a possibility, according to Yahoo Sports News. Canelo facing the young 22-year-old Munguia (33-0, 26 KOs) would bring in a fair amount of subscribers to DAZN, but not the bonanza that a trilogy against GGG would have.
Demetrius Andade was always a long shot for Canelo
Fans never bought into the the idea that Canelo was going to fight the 6-1″ southpaw Andrade in a unification fight. Andrade is similar to 5’9″ former WBA junior middleweight champion Erislandy Lara, who Canelo had a lot of problems beating in 2014 in winning a 12 round split decision. Given how much of a struggle Canelo had with Lara, it’s impossible to picture him agreeing to fight the Rhode Island native Andrade.
Canelo would have fits with Andrade’s height, reach, counter punching and southpaw stance. You’d have to give Canelo a massive amount of respect for fighting Andrade, because Gennady Golovkin never showed any real desire to fight him. Billy Joe Saunders failed to defend against Andrade when he was the WBO middleweight title holder. Some boxing fans believe Saunders didn’t fancy the fight with Andrade.
The way that Andrade dominated his recent opponents Maciej Sulecki, Walter Kautondokwa and Artur Akavov, he might have scared off Canelo and his promoters at Golden Boy Promotions from ever setting up a fight with him. That might explain the reason why Golden Boy and Canelo wanted Golovkin to fight Andrade to pick up his WBO title from him. In other words, they wanted Golovkin to do the dirty work for Canelo in facing a fighter with hard style to solve.
Is Canelo’s ambition gone now that he’s signed with DAZN?
One of the problems that comes from people that suddenly are given a huge amount of money is they’re not as hungry as they were before. Throughout the history of boxing and in business, when someone makes a lot of money, it changes the. Sometimes they’re no longer willing to do the hard work for their chosen progression. If Canelo chooses not to fight guys like Golovkin, Derevyanchenko, Callum Smith, Jermall Charlo and Demetrius Andrade, who does that leave?
Canelo probably won’t bring in a lot of subscribers for a sick mismatch against the young 22-year-old Munguia. A fight between Canelo and Munguia would be off-putting in the eyes of a lot of boxing fans. If Canelo is only going to fight guys that he considers beatable, then how is that good for DAZN? They recently signed the 29-year-old Alvarez to a 11-fight, $365 million deal, thinking that one of those fights would involve Golovkin.
GGG lost to Canelo in their rematch last September. The fight was close, but it’s believed that Canelo did enough to just barely edge it on the cards. However, Golovkin appeared to win the first fight even more decisive against Alvarez, but the judges scored it a 12 round draw. One judge went as far as to score the fight 10 rounds to 2 in Canelo’s favor.
DAZN should have gotten an agreement from Canelo that he would fight GGG again
There’s a lot of bad blood on Golovkin’s side, because he felt he deserved to win both fights. Further, Canelo later tested positive for a banned substance while training for his rematch with Canelo. This led to a lot of boxing fans speculating on whether Canelo was using PEDs in preparation for his first fight with Golovkin.
DAZN obviously should have gotten an agreement from Canelo that he would face GGG in a trilogy fight before they signed Golovkin to a six-fight, nine-figure contract. It’s hard to believe that DAZN wouldn’t have gotten an agreement from Canelo that he would fight Golovkin a third time.
Golovkin ordered to fight Derevyanchenko by IBF
Earlier on Monday, the International Boxing Federation ordered former IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Golovkin (39-1-1, 35 KOs) and IBF mandatory Derevyanchenko (13-1, 10 KOs) to fight for the vacant IBF 160 pound title. That fight could take place on October 5, assuming a deal is made. Derevyachenko’s promoter Lou DiBella is optimistic that he’ll be able to put a deal together with Golovkin’s management.
The management for both fighters received letters from the IBF letting them know the negotiation period has begun, and they they have until September 4 to make a deal before a purse bid is ordered. The two fighters will battle for the IBF title that was recently stripped from Canelo Alvarez last Thursday when his promoters at Golden Boy failed to make a deal with the 33-year-old Derevyanchenko for a fight.
The way it’s looking now, Golovkin isn’t assured of a third fight with Canelo, even if he beats Derevyanchenko to win the vacant IBF title on October 5. Canelo is reported to have gotten DAZN Executive Chairman of Perform Group John Skipper to agree that he wouldn’t have to fight Golovkin in May of 2020 on Cinco de Mayo. It’s unclear if Canelo got Skipper to agree that he never has to fight GGG ever again or not, but it would be be bad for DAZN if he agreed to that.
Golovkin is the only guy that the boxing fans are excited about seeing Canelo fight right now. There would be some interest in a Canelo vs. Sergey Kovalev or Callum Smith fight, but not a whole lost. Smith isn’t widely known by casual boxing fans, and Kovalev lost a whole bunch of fans in his consecutive losses to Andrade Ward in 2016/2017, as well as his defeat to Eleider Alvarez.