By Dan Ambrose: Tired of the critics that have been giving him grief about defending his WBO middleweight title against Liam Williams, champion Demetrius ‘Boo Boo’ Andrade calmly points that he’s still a better fighter than Canelo Alvarez’s last opponent Avni Yildirim.
Andrade (29-0, 18 KOs) is fighting Williams (23-2-1, 18 KOs) in the headliner next month on April 17th live on DAZN at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino Hollywood, Florida.
Yeah, Andrade vs. Williams is certainly a dreadful fight on paper, but it’s worlds better than the godawful match between Canelo and Yildirim last February.
DAZN is a great platform, but that was a bad one for them, on par with the equally poor Daniel Jacobs vs. Julio Cesar Chavez Jr match in December 2019. In hindsight, it would have been better for DAZN to tell Canelo and Jacobs, ‘No Thanks, we’ll pass on these mismatches.’
The WBA/WBC super middleweight champion Canelo (55-1-2, 37 KOs) has taken massive abuse from the boxing world for his decision to defend his WBA 168-lb title against Yildirim (21-3, 12 KOs), a fighter that hadn’t fought in two years and was coming off a defeat.
Despite holding the WBC Franchise title, which would have allowed Canelo to bypass his mandatory requirements to defend against Yildirim, he took the fight anyway and easily stopped the punching bag-esque fighter.
Yildirim looked woefully underequipped for the fight, and it was a terrible fight to watch. You can argue there was absolutely no sporting value to the fight, yet this was the fight Canelo wanted.
The type of fights that the U.S boxing public wants to see Canelo involved in are ones in which he could potentially lose. In other words, a fight that closer to being 50-50 affairs. You’re not going to get that if Canelo is able to hand-pick guys like Yildirim, Callum Smith, and Billy Joe Saunders.
“I am fighting real tough guys that have the opportunity to come on up and fight me,” said Andrade to ‘The Last Stand Podcast on Monday. “I am not just fighting guys like they say tomato cans or bums.
“Because nobody stepping in the ring is a tomato can or bum when they get in the ring.
“But I bet Williams is better than the last guy [Yildirim] Canelo fought. You know what I am saying? The tougher guy that Canelo fought,” said Demetrius.
Two wrongs don’t make a right, though, and it’s hard to give Andrade a pass for taking a weak fight against Liam Williams by justifying the mismatch based on Canelo having a soft job himself recently.
Ideally, you’d like to see DAZN start setting limits about the type of fights they’re willing to show on their platform. It would be in the boxing public’s best interest for DAZN to be more selective about the fights they show.
Should world champions be given a pass and allowed to have their fights shown on DAZN if they’re facing weak mandatory challengers? You can argue that Liam Williams and Yildirim lack the talent and popularity to be worthwhile as opponents for Andrade and Canelo.