By Allan Fox: A unification fight between middleweight champions Jermall Charlo and Demetrius Andrade is a must after boxing comes following the coronavirus situation this year in 2021.
WBO 160-lb champion Andrade’s promoter Eddie Hearn has been trying to put that fight together with WBC champ Charlo (30-0, 22 KOs), but he’s not had much success on that front. Hearn states that the hard-hitting Charlo could make three-times his normal purse by fighting Andrade, but this bit of information has failed to tempt him.
Premier Boxing Champions are expected to match Charlo against former IBO super middleweight champion Chris Eubank Jr. next when the coronavirus goes away. Thus far, U.S fans have been cool to the idea of Charlo defending against Eubank Jr. (29-2, 22 KOs), but he’s still a vast improvement over Charlo’s last two opponents Dennis Hogan and Brandon Adams. Those two were essentially gimmes for Charlo.
The possible upcoming fights for Andrade (29-0, 18 KOs) and Charlo are underwhelming, to say the least. Andrade, 31, is supposed to be defending against his WBO mandatory Liam Williams (22-2-1, 17 KOs) next. Williams has a six-fight winning streak since losing twice to Liam Smith.
Hearn wants Jermall Charlo vs. Demetrius Andrade
“Eddie Hearn said Jermall Charlo can make a ‘boatload of money fighting Demetrius Andrade.’ These two fighters are undefeated middleweights,” said Chris Mannix to DAZN. “Both titleholders have been circling each other for the better part of the last six months. There are a lot of great fights that can be made in boxing.”
“For the boxing purists probably but for the casual fan and the importance of making a mega-event, of course not,” said Sergio Mora to DAZN on a fight between Jermall Charlo and Demetrius Andrade. “We got AJ-Fury, that’s the mega-fight and the type of fight that is going to fill an arena in the UK with 100,000 people.
“Of course, you’ve got Spence and Crawford. That fight is going to be on pause because of Spence’s accident, but that’s a mega-event because of two pound-for-pound fighters that can be made. Of course, the trilogy with Canelo and GGG, which I hope happens in September because we need to settle business in that fight,” said Mora.
Obviously, Mora is correct about Charlo vs. Andrade not measuring up to the mouth-watering potential fights between Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury, Errol Spence Jr. vs. Terence Crawford and Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennadiy Golovkin. But for the hardcore boxing fans, who are familiar with Andrade and Charlo, they’ll be happy to see those two fight.
Yeah, it doesn’t measure up in comparison to the above-mentioned fights, but it’s still an excellent one. While Charlo and Andrade are both good fighters, they’re still unproven against A-level competition, and this will be a good chance for them to show what they have.
Charlo vs. Andrade = a huge fight after shutdown
“You can keep your Fury vs. Joshua, you can keep your Crawford vs. Spence. Give me Andrade vs. Charlo all day long,” said Mannix. “I have been the biggest proponent in boxing for this fight.
“I have this close to having t-shirts made, saying ‘Andrade-Charlo 2020.’ This is a fight that would take two of the top 160-pounders in the world, two guys that are desperately seeking a top fight. Before the shutdown, we had Andrade talking about fighting Liam Williams in a fight that nobody cares about.
“You had Charlo talking about fighting Chris Eubank in a fight that nobody cares about. And you put these two guys in against each other, not only is it consequential, but I think it’s a good style fight.
“You have Andrade, who is more of a counter-puncher, and arguably one of the best top fighters in all of boxing, and Charlo, more of the aggressor, the bigger puncher. The winner of that fight would take a massive step forward with their career. That to me is the best fight you can make in boxing,” said Mannix.
As far as pure entertainment, Charlo vs. Andrade could prove to be more exciting than Joshua-Fury, Spence-Crawford, and Canelo-Golovkin. The reason for that is those fights are likely to wind up being boxing matches. Crawford isn’t going to slug with Spence, being that he’s not as powerful as him.
We’ll likely see Crawford get on his bike and run around the ring like he did against Viktor Postol after he built up an early lead. Canelo only fights in spurts, and he spends a lot of time-fighting with his back against the ropes, imitating Floyd Mayweather Jr. He may come forward occasionally to try and hit GGG with body shots, but most of the time he’ll be against the ropes, resting.
Andrade still not a big enough name yet
“You don’t need to sell me. You’re obviously a promoter now, a writer and a promoter. Mannix Promotion, you don’t need to sell me,” said Mora. “I know how good the fight can be.
“You need to sell it to the casual fans, and you need to sell it to the people that are actually going to want to subscribe to watch this fight. Those are the people that you need to sell. Frankly, I don’t think that Andrade and Charlo do that, at least not yet.
“If Andrade would get the knockouts that you want him to get for every single fight, then maybe you might have a point, but for right now, yes, as a boxing purist, that’s the best fight you can make.
“As a casual fan and for the people that are going to subscribe and for the people that are the casuals, no, that’s not it. It’s AJ-Fury, it’s fight like GGG vs. Canelo trilogy, it’s Spence vs. Crawford when Spence heals up. Those are the fights that people want to watch,” said Mora.
Andrade had the bad luck of being with a promoter that failed to match him tough for the majority of his career. That cost him big time due to him not getting fights that other fighters have.
Now that Andrade is with Matchroom Boxing, they’re trying to get him the biggest fights, but not having any luck. All those years in which Andrade was matched poorly has stunted his popularity, making him a high-risk, low-reward level fighter. As such, Matchroom hasn’t been able to get Andrade fights against Charlo, Golovkin or Canelo, and it’s possible they never will.
Demetrius should have stopped Keeler faster
“Did I want to see Andrade knockout Maciej Sulecki after hurting him in the first round? Absolutely,” said Mannix. “Andrade could have stopped Luke Keeler if he was more aggressive early on? Absolutely. But I’m not alone here saying that Andrade needs to get more knockouts. Are you going to say it’s perfectly fine for Andrade to rack up these decisions or late knockouts in the case of Luke Keeler. That’s okay?”
“Yes, that’s okay because he’s undefeated and getting paid millions of dollars,” said Mora on Andrade. “He’s still tall, black and pretty, as he likes to say. He is a special fighter going in that direction. He doesn’t mind being the B-side, as long as he’s getting A-plus money. He’s alright with that, his father is alright with that. They’ve been doing that since the Olympics.
“They were Olympians, so they’re fine with it. They just need to convince guys like you and guys like me. You want the knockout and the stoppages. I just want the convincing wins like the ones he had against Kautondokwa, and like he had against Luke Keeler. He should have stopped Luke Keeler earlier,” said Mora.
“Andrade, you say he’s making a lot of money and he is, but he’s not making A-plus money,” said Mannix. “A-plus money when you fight Canelo, when you fight Gennadiy Golovkin. And you know why he can’t get those fights? Because he’s not knocking guys out. If he’d knocked out Sulecki or if he’d knocked out Luke Keeler in the first round, I’m telling you, he’d be in line for one of those two fights. Right now, he seems like he’s a long way off,” said Mannix.
It looked like Andrade took it easy on Keeler, since he was completely over-matched. It looked like Andrade didn’t want to obliterate Keeler like he could have out of sympathy.
So instead of crushing Keeler right away, Andrade let him hang around to show off, and get some rounds in. That’s how I read it. I viewed it as a situation where Andrade initially stayed in 1st gear for the majority of the fight because he knew Keeler wasn’t in his class. Andrade was like a math teacher with a student that was struggling with long division. He wasn’t going to start giving him calculus problems expecting him to solve them.
