By William Lloyd: Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn has written to the WBC and WBO to try and force a unification fight between WBC middleweight champion Jermall Charlo and WBO champion Demetrius Andrade.
If World Boxing Council orders Charlo to face Andrade, it’s questionable whether he’ll do so. Charlo isn’t going to take the fight if he doesn’t want to, especially if there’s the potential of him losing. Jermall has got a good thing going on, making excellent money fighting little-known opposition on Showtime.
Hearn tried to lure the unbeaten WBC champion Jermall (32-0, 22 KOs) to face Andrade (31-0, 19 KOs), but he’s not interested.
In the meantime, the management for #2 WBO Zhanibek Alimkhanuly is looking to install him as the next mandatory for Andrade. They want that match to happen next, given that the current mandatory Jaime Munguia has chosen not to face Andrade.
Not surprisingly, Hearn isn’t interested in setting up a fight between Andrade and the unbeaten 2016 Olympian Zhanibek (11-0, 7 KOs). That’s a high-risk, low reward fight for Andrade, and it would be s tough one that could lose.
Hearn points out that Andrade, 33, recently defended against his mandatory two fights ago when he defeated Liam Williams last April. He doesn’t feel that Demetrius should have to make another mandatory defense right away unless it’s again Munguia,
Hearn hoping WBC orders Charlo to face Andrade
“Boo Boo wanted to fight in New Hampshire and Providence, so that’s why we did that, and it was a good show,” said Eddie Hearn to iFL TV on why he staged Demetrius Andrade’s fight with Jason Quigley in New Hampshire rather than Las Vegas.
“We wrote to [WBC president] Mauricio Sulaiman yesterday to say that under one of their rules, they can order their champion to fight another champion.
“They’ve done it before, and we’ve asked them for the good of boxing to order Demetrius Andrade against Jermall Charlo. It’s a brilliant fight,” said Hearn.
“If they do, then it’ll be up to the WBO, who we’ve also written to sanction that fight, which they can. Fingers crossed, we get a tremendous fight.
“Mauricio, these guys talk about doing the best for boxing,” said Hearn. “I believe it’s a great opportunity for the fans to say, ‘Wow, you really are working for the best in boxing. You’re trying to make fights that can’t be made because of other problems. So we’ll wait for their decision.
Zhanibek would be a big problem for Demetrius
“Not yet,” said Hearn when asked about the WBO potentially ordering Andrade to defend against Zhanibek Alimkhanuly after mandatory Jaime Munguia chose not to face Andrade.
“They’ve [Team Zhanibek] requested it. Egis [Klimas] requested it, which we’re responding to at the moment. Demetrius Andrade fought Liam Williams two fights ago. That was a mandatory challenger.
“So why do we have to go back into another mandatory challenger? Give him [Andrade] the chance to make big fights. This is the whole problem. That’ll be our argument with them, and hopefully, the WBC will do what’s right,” said Hearn.