By Dan Ambrose: Eddie Hearn says Jermall Charlo’s promotional company should be called “Cubs Only” because he won’t “Man-up” and agree to face the 160-lb champion, Demetrius Andrade, in a unification fight.
Hearn said that he sent a direct message to WBC middleweight champion Charlo (30-0, 22 KOs), who has his own promotional company ‘Lion’s Only,’ to try and set-up a fight between him and WBO champion Andrade (29-0, 18 KOs), but he says he was told by Jermall to contact his adviser Al Haymon.
Matchroom Boxing promoter Hearn says he thinks Charlo and his team don’t want the fight against Demetrius for some reason. They just don’t fancy it.
Hearn added that the offer that he was Charlo is TWICE the highest payday that he’s ever gotten during his career.
Hearn: I don’t think Team Charlo wants Andrade fight
“I don’t think they want to fight him, to be honest with you,” Hearn said to Fighthub about Demetrius Andrade. “I think partly because Canelo wants to fight at 168. So I think if he came to 160, he would consider Demetrius, but it’s so difficult to get Demetrius fights against bigger names.
“People just perceive him to be too good, but maybe he’s not too good, but maybe that’s the perception that he has. ‘Ah, Demetrius. I ain’t fighting him.’ That’s honestly the response from most people.
“I said to PBC, ‘What do you have for Charlo? No one wants to see him [Jermall] have a voluntary defense, and no one wants to see Demetrius have a voluntary defense anymore. We’ll do it on Fox.’ Absolutely,” Hearn said when asked if he told PBC that he would match Andrade against Jermall Charlo on Fox. “Two weeks ago [Hearn asked PBC about matching Andrade with Charlo].
All I said to them was, ‘Can we do Charlo-Demetrius on DAZN?’ ‘No.’ ‘Can we do Charlo-Demetrius on Fox?’ ‘Oh, would you let him come to Fox?’ ‘Yeah.’ ‘Ah, okay.’ It wasn’t [we’ll do it.’ It doesn’t sound like Charlo and his training team wants to fight Demetrius Andrade,” said Hearn.
It is hard to believe that Charlo and his team would turn down a fight against the 2008 U.S Olympian Andrade because it’s a big step up from the guys he’s been facing as a pro. But then again, maybe that’s the issue. It could be that Andrade is seen as too risky of a fight for Charlo, so they’re not willing to take the fight.
Is Jermall Charlo being talked out of fighting Andrade?
“On one hand, Charlo will say he’s his own boss, and he’ll message me and say, ‘Send me an email.’ So I send him an email, and he says, ‘I don’t make any decisions. Speak to Al Haymon,'” said Hearn. “What happened to Lion’s Only Promotion? It needs to be Cubs Only Promotion because ‘man-up’ before your own boss, and let people know what you’re going to do.
“If you’re not willing to fight another champion in a unification fight for twice as much money, and more money than you ever, then there’s something I don’t understand,” Hearn said of Jermall. “Are you being talked out of it?
“Is somebody telling you they got better options for you? So if it’s a network thing, do it on FOX. If it’s not, take the money and prove that you’re the best,” said Hearn in talking about Charlo.
Some people in the boxing world believe that Charlo, 29, is just milking his WBC middleweight title against soft opponents, and not taking risks. Charlo says he wants to fight Canelo Alvarez, and you have to believe that’s true. It would be such a big payday for Canelo, that it wouldn’t matter if he lost the fight. He’d still make out well.
The southpaw Andrade might be too risky for Charlo, and that might be the reason why Hearn has been getting nowhere with his negotiations attempts.
These are Jermall’s last six opponents:
- Dennis Hogan
- Brandon Adams
- Matvey Korobov
- Hugo Centeno Jr
- Jorge Sebastian Heiland
- Julian Williams
Those fights have accounted for the last 4 years of Charlo’s career, and none of those guys are at the top. J-Rock Williams is perhaps the best, but he was mowed down recently by 24-year-old Jeison Rosario last January in losing his IBF/WBA 154-lb titles.
Callum Smith and Billy Joe Saunders waiting on Canelo
“People think I know more than I do. All I know is Golden Boy knows the price of both guys, and we’ll basically be told at some point. I thought yesterday, but maybe we’ll lose the fight. I think it’ll be one of those guys, and we’ll just wait for the call, ‘It’s you.’ Only because he’s a nut case and Callum’s not.
“Callum’s not going to be calling people out on social media and posting pictures. Billy has been calling me up, saying, ‘Tell them, I don’t want it. I’m moving on. I want another fight.’ ‘Okay, calm down. Wait.’ So someone is going to be disappointed. Unfortunately, we don’t pick who it’s going to be.
“We deliver the price to Golden Boy, and they choose who they want to fight. I think the promoters will want to go with the lower one because that’s what promoters do. Canelo will go with the one that he prefers. There are arguments for both guys,” said Hearn.
It appears that Golden Boy Promotions are keeping Hearn, Billy Joe Saunders, and Callum Smith in limbo while they decide which of those two fighters they’ll pick for Canelo Alvarez’s May 2 fight.
In recent weeks, it was thought that Callum (27-0, 19 KOs) had priced himself out for the fight. In fact, Golden Boy Promotions CEO Oscar De La Hoya scolded Callum in criticizing him to the media for pricing himself out of the fight. De La Hoya made it clear that they were moving on.
Canelo has a lot to gain fighting Callum or Saunders
“A victory over Callum Smith would give him the WBA world title and the Ring Magazine championship,” Hearn said in stating what Canelo gains in fighting Callum and Saunders. “And a victory over Billy Joe Saunders would give him a victory over a guy that a lot of people have avoided.
“I would say there are benefits and weaknesses to fighting both guys. I think Billy Joe Saunders is an established high-level fighter that people have avoided for a long time. Callum has the Ring Magazine belt, and that would be a major win for Canelo,” said Hearn.
After a brief period of time where fans/media thought Saunders was the frontrunner in the Canelo sweepstakes, it’s now it’s swung back Callum’s way with fans and the media believing he’s going to be the one Canelo fights next. Golden Boy Promotions president Eric Gomez revealed this week that Canelo’s next opponent will be a “DANGEROUS” guy, and boxing fans will be ‘SURPRISED.”
When Gomez said that, people naturally assumed that he was talking about Callum Smith, because Saunders has no power, and he’s not ‘Dangerous.’ If Saunders is the one that gets the Canelo fight, then Golden Boy will need to promote the fight describing the type of fighter Saunders is in a more accurate manner. If they call him ‘dangerous’ throughout the promotion, fans won’t won’t take them seriously.