By Charles Brun: Eddie Hearn says he spoke with Demetrius Andrade and he believes that a fight between him and Billy Joe Saunders will happen in 2021. Andrade (29-0, 18 KOs) wants to move up to 168 and take the WBO super-middleweight title from Saunders (30-0, 14 KOs) next year.
Last Friday night, Saunders, 31, mentioned Andrade as one of the fighters that he’s supposedly interested in fighting next year. The guy that Saunders is holding all hope in fighting next is Canelo Alvarez, who wants to unify the 168-lb division.
“Spoke to Demetrius Andrade last night, I think this fight is going to happen, I really do,” said Hearn on social media on Monday.
Eddie should make Saunders vs. Andrade
Hearn promotes both Andrade and Saunder, so he should in theory be able to make the Saunders-Andrade fight. But Saunders would likely block it, and let Hearn know that he only wants Canelo, Callum Smith, or Golovkin.
The problem is, if those fights don’t happen in 2021, Billy Joe will be back to taking easy matches like he’s been doing largely since his win over Andy Lee in 2015.
The World Boxing Organization president Paco Valcarcel Tweeted last Friday that Hearn has ten days to advise him if Saunders will be facing Andrade or Canelo Alvarez next. If not, the WBO will order Billy Joe’s mandatory, which probably will be Zach Parker. That guy is arguably a slight improvement over Martin Murray, but only by a small amount.
he WBO will be doing Saunders a favor if they order him to defend against Parker because that guy hasn’t shown the kind of talent that would him a great to Billy Joe.
If the WBO wanted to give Saunders massive problems, they’d order him to defend against #9 Edger Berlanga (15-0, 15 KOs). That guy would be a total nightmare for Saunders, and it would be interesting to see if he would take that fight or vacate.
Billy Joe had the chance to fight Andrade in 2018
Saunders was supposed to defend against Andrade in 2018, but he vacated the belt when he had the Rhode Island native primed for a title shot. Rather than staying at 160 to defend against Andrade, Saunders moved up to 168 and captured the vacant WBO super middleweight title in beating Shefat Isufi.
It looked to some boxing fans like Saunders ducked Andrade and went in the path of least resistance in taking on the little known Isufi.
It’s doubtful that Saunders will choose to fight with the dangerous 32-year-old Andrade, given that he could face Canelo next year. Even if Canelo wanted no part of Saunders, Billy Joe would probably go in the direction of Callum Smith or Gennadiy Golovkin moves up in weight.
Saunders looked lackluster last Friday night in beating his hand-picked opponent Martin Murray by a 12 round unanimous decision at the Wembley Arena in London, UK.
The wide scores showed how of a mismatch this dreadful fight was: 120-109, 118-110, and 120-109.
What was surprising is DAZN agreed to show it in the U.S, as it’s a fight that had zero appeal. Saunders wanted to fight the 38-year-old Murray for some reason, and boy what an ugly match it turned out to be.
Saunders spent half the fight fouling Murray and showing visible frustration at his inability to hurt him the way Golovkin had. Finally, at one point in the fourth, Saunders angrily pulled Murray to the canvas and looked at the referee like he was supposed to score it as a knockdown.