By Dan Ambrose: Demetrius Andrade will be facing Gennadiy Glovkin in a unification fight at middleweight in 2021 on DAZN if promoter Eddie Hearn has his way. Hearn promotes both fighters, and he says he’s going to speak to DAZN to see if he can line this fight up between the two 160-lb champions in a unification clash.
If Hearn is able to put the deal together, IBF middleweight champion Golovkin would be battling WBO champion Andrade in a unification at some point in 2021.
Hearn has failed to put Andrade in against any of the big names since he started promoting him a year ago. If he can negotiate a fight for the 32-year-old Andrade against superstar Golovkin, he’d be doing him a solid.
Hearn to ask DAZN to make Golovkin vs. Andrade
“I’ll be saying to DAZN, ‘You have a contract with Andrade, you have a contract with Golovkin, let’s put these guys together,” Eddie Hearn said to the AK and Barak Show @SiriusXMBoxing.
The Matchroom Boxing promoter Hearn isn’t saying why the unbeaten Andrade (29-0, 18 KOs) or Golovkin (41-1-1, 36 KOs) aren’t be considered as one of the opponents for Canelo Alvarez’s two-fight deal that he’s currently working on with DAZN.
Considering that Golovkin is said to be potentially facing former WBO junior middleweight champion Jaime Munguia (36-0, 29 KOs) for May 2021, Hearn would be hoping to put the GGG vs. Andrade unification fight together for the second half of the years.
If Golovkin faces Andrade in the fall of 2021, it would mean that none of Canelo Alvarez’s three fights next year would be against GGG. That’s convenient for Canelo, but not good for DAZN or Golovkin.
DAZN would like to see Canelo – Golovkin on the boxing schedule in 2021, but it doesn’t sound like that’s going to happen. With Hearn talking about wanting to match Andrade against Golovkin in 2021, it makes it clear that Canelo won’t be fighting the Kazahstan fighter next year.
It’s potentially bad for DAZN to have Canelo putting the Golovkin fight into deep freeze for all of 2021. Golovkin would need to win both of his fights next year to keep alive his hopes of facing Canelo in the future. If Golovkin faces Andrade, that would be a risky fight for him.
Demetrius would be a good option for Canelo in 2021
Unless Canelo’s trainer/manager Eddy Reynoso has already specifically ruled Andrade out, he would be an excellent option for Alvarez’s fight next May.
U.S boxing fans would much prefer Andrade as Canelo’s opponent on Cinco de Mayo in 2021 than Billy Joe Saunders.
If Canelo cares about his legacy rather than his superficial goal of becoming the undisputed 168-pound champion, he’ll fight Andrade or Golovkni in the first quarter of the New Year.
Andrade is a lot more talented than the two guys that Canelo is looking to pad his record against in 2021 against Yildirim and Billy Joe Saunders.
If Golovkin loses to Andrade, he can forget about Canelo ever fighting him again. Canelo would have his excuse to tell the boxing public and DAZN why he doesn’t need to fight GGG a third time.
The fighters that Hearn is negotiating for Canelo to fight in his two-fight deal with DAZN are Avni Yildirim and Billy Joe Saunders. Those are fighters that both GGG and Andrade would likely knockout within seven rounds.
It would be better for Golovkin to let Hearn know that he’s going to wait on fighting Andrade until after he faces Canelo again. There’s no point in Golovkin taking a risky fight against Andrade until he faces the Mexican star again.
If Canelo were facing great opposition next year, it would put pressure on GGG to match what he’s doing, but that’s not going to be the case.
Canelo is going to be taking easy fights against Yildirim and the light-hitting Billy Joe Saunders. There are a lot better fighters at 160 and 168 than those guys.