Hearn to sweeten offer to Jermall Charlo to fight Demetrius Andrade

By Boxing News - 01/29/2020 - Comments

By Jim Maltzman: Demetrius Andrade might need to look bad in defending his WBO middleweight title against Luke Keeler this Thursday for him to get a big name to fight him, according to his Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn. Thus far, Hearn hasn’t been able to lure the top middleweights Canelo Alvarez, Gennadiy Golovkin or Jermall Charlo to fight Andrade.

Hearn previously offered Jermall a fight with Andrade, but he failed to respond to the email that he sent. Tim Smith of PBC recently said they received no offer from Hearn for a fight with WBC middleweight champion Charlo (30-0, 22 KOs). However, Hearn states that he sent the offer directly to Jermall, since Premier Boxing Champions don’t promote him. He’s his own promoter.

Provided Andrade (28-0, 17 KOs) defeats #3 WBO Keeler (17-2-1, 5 KOs) this Thursday, Hearn will be making an IMPROVED offer to Charlo for a unification fight in 2020. Hearn says Andrade is willing to fight on Showtime if needed to get the fight done between them.

Andrade and Keeler will be fighting on DAZN tomorrow night on January 30 at the Meridian at Island Gardens in Miami. Demetrius is reportedly a huge 70:1 favorite to defeat the 32-year-old Keeler.

Jermall Charlo should fight Demetrius Andrade

“For me, Charlo should be fighting Andrade,” said Hearn to secondsout. “You’ve got a guy over there with PBC, and they’ve got no middleweights. The only way you’re going to unify is to fight Canelo Alvarez, Gennadiy Golovkin or Demetrius. So they’re all on DAZN.

“We’re not even asking you to sign a network contract or promotional contract,” said Hearn. “Just take the fight to see if you can unify the division. So hopefully he does, because that’s the fight we need to see,” said Hearn about Charlo agreeing to fight Andrade in a unification.

Charlo, 29, is willing to fight the top guys in the 160-lb division, and he’s been after fights with Golovkin and Canelo for years now. Andrade hasn’t been on Jermall’s target list due to his inactivity and his weak resume. Demetrius doesn’t have a big following, and that makes him a desirable opponent for Jermall or any of the top 160-lb fighters.

Hearn is new to U.S boxing, and he’s not aware how Andrade’s career has gone since turning pro in 2008. You can argue that Hearn isn’t helping Andrade by having him defend his WBO title against little known Keeler. Few U.S fans are interested in this fight, and Andrade gains nothing from it.

Hearn to make new offer to Charlo for Andrade bout

“This one the 10th of December, 2019,” said Hearn. “This was a day after I said I was going to send it. ‘Hi Jermall, congrats to the win, I would like to make an offer of a unification.’ I’ll show you this one. You can’t repeat it. ‘Unification fight with Demetrius for a lot of money.

“The fight will be a co-promotion between Matchroom and Lions Promotion,” said Hearn in talking about Andrade vs. Charlo. “We have so much to offer in terms of a multi-fight deal, which I’m happy to discuss, and alternatively, we’d be happy to offer this as a one-fight deal.’ I don’t want to put his [Jermall] e-mail address out there. Anyway, he [Charlo] received the offer. PBC said, ‘We haven’t received the offer,’ because it wasn’t to them.

“He’s not promoted by PBC,” Hearn continued on Charlo. “So we went it to Charlo, and you saw the amount of money. He’s responded to previous offers, saying, ‘I’ll speak to Al [Haymon], and I’ll come back to you.’ So nothing.

“What we’ll have to do is after Demetrius’ fight this week [against Keeler], we’ll make another offer,” said Hearn in wanting to make NEW offer to Jermall. “We’re up to do that as well, no problem,” said Hearn about Andrade being willing to fight Jermall on Showtime. No problem at all. You know the number now,” said Hearn about the offer he made to Charlo to fight Andrade.

It’s going to need to be a big offer from Heran for Charlo to want to cross the pond to fight Andrade on DAZN. The fact that Charlo never replied back to Hearn is a sign that he felt the money wasn’t to his liking.

Hearn discusses previous offer to Charlo for Andrade fight

“Well, what I’ll do is. I won’t read it out because when people say that, it questions my integrity,” Hearn said to secondsout when told that someone from PBC said there was no offer from Eddie for a fight between Andrade and Charlo. “What worries me about that is people like you might go, ‘Did he really make an offer?’ He [Charlo] didn’t say he didn’t receive an offer.

“PBC said they never received an offer, and PBC didn’t receive an offer, right?” said Hearn. “‘I’ve got an email coming to you today.’ This was right after his last fight. ‘Everyone is saying you haven’t gotten my email. Did you get it? Now when you got to my emails. He’s responded to my emails before, so I know I’ve got the right address.

“Okay, this is the Instagram,” said Hearn on Charlo. “He’s telling me his e-mail address. I said the 9th of December, ‘congrats for his win. I have an email coming to you today.’ So he got my last email at this address. So then I sent him an email in January 2019 with an offer,” said Hearn.

Fans don’t doubt that Hearn offered Charlo the fight with Andrade. Few boxing fans doubt that the offer was made to Charlo to face Andrade. They just see it as a situation where Hearn didn’t come up with the right figure for Charlo to take the fight.

Andrade needs to look bad against Keeler

“Probably look bad and get knocked down,” said Hearn when asked what Andrade must do for him to get a big name to fight him. “The problem is, we’re just going to have to pay the money, because people are saying that Andrade is the best 160-pounder in the world. But until we get him the fights to prove it, we can’t say it with any solidarity, you know?

“It’s just, we think or people think,” said Hearn in him wanting to prove how good Andrade is. “Too many people in boxing rate him too highly, you know? I like the Keeler fight, because the Keeler fight will give him everything. These guys in boxing, [Artur] Avakov and [Maciej] Sulecki, they said the same thing, and when they got in there [with Andrade], they couldn’t win a round.

“So what can Keeler do? He’s earned his shot, and he’s #2 with the WBO,” said Hearn. “He beat [Luis] Arias well. I want to give him the opportunity, and I want to see Demetrius under pressure. And I want to see someone back him up, and beat him up. But I have a feeling he’s too good. You’re not going to out-box him, are you? You’ve got to rough him up and beat him up. That’s what Sulecki said,” Hearn said.

Andrade ALREADY did look bad in his last two fights against Maciej Sulecki and Artur Akavov, and that failed to entice any of the top guys like Charlo, GGG and Canelo to fight him. Demetrius looked dog tired in the second half of his fight with Sulecki last June after coming close to scoring a 1st round knockout. Andrade gassed out after throwing a flurry in round 1, and he never got his second wind after that.

Canelo won’t be at 160 again – Hearn

“We’ve had a couple of conversations with Golden Boy,” said Hearn on Andrade vs. Canelo Alvarez on May 2. “Obviously, you’ve got Callum Smith and Billy Joe Saunders, both ready-made opponents for Canelo at 168. They’re [Team Canelo] talking to [Ryota] Murata as well, which is a strange choice, but I can see how it works in Japan and stuff like that.

It’s safe to say that Canelo won’t bother fighting Andrade on May 2, so it’s pointless for Hearn to speculate about his weight. Supposedly, there’s a chance for Canelo to fight Saunders or Callum Smith next on May 2. Both of those fighters are with Hearn, but it remains to be seen if he does. Canelo doesn’t have a lot of great choices right now in any weight class he fights in. The fans want to see Canelo take the tough fights, and none of them will be easy for him.

YouTube video

“For Demetrius, there is the Billy Joe Saunders fight,” said Hearn. “There’s other great fights for him like [Jaime] Munguia, who really should be mandatory for Demetrius Andrade. And also, [Sergiy] Derevyanchenko, who I think would be a great fight for Andrade. He needs that big name to become a star, and right now people are saying he could be the best in the world.

“For me, I don’t think we’ll see Canelo at 160 again,” said Hearn. “When you box at light heavyweight, to drop 15 pounds to come back to middleweight, I think he’s going to box at 168. He’s got loads of opponents there. You’ve got [Jermall] Charlo with the WBC, and Demetrius with the WBO,” said Hearn.

Matching Andrade against Saunders, Callum, Derevyanchenko or Danny Jacobs sounds like a good idea. Those would be tough fights for Andrade, and he might lose to all of them.