By Jimmy James: Casual fans around the world and mainstream sports networks rank Mexican superstar Canelo Alvarez as the best pound for pound on the planet. Canelo not only became the most successful boxer since Floyd Mayweather Jr retired but has become a global icon among his fellow countrymen that support him in every fight regardless of the circumstances.
Canelo has considered fighting against Errol Spence and even opened the door for a future fight against Jake Paul; Yes, ‘Jake Paul.’ Yet, he is adamant not to fight Demetrius Andrade under no circumstances, the one fighter he stood far away from for a decade that resulted in him not capturing the WBO titles in the middleweight.
In fact, Andrade was the one boogie man that prevented Canelo from becoming undisputed. That is a fact! Andrade offered Canelo $40M to take the fight for undisputed, and he decided to go up against past prime Sergey Kovalev for $35M.
Canelo talks about “payday,” but he was about to make more money with Andrade and for an undisputed championship at middleweight! Excuse, over excuse, over excuse will get you fired in a real job!
Andrade has shown again and again that opponents like Gennady Golovkin, Jermall Charlo, and Jaime Mungia want no parts with him. In fact, even the likes of Sergiy Derevyanchenko and Erislandy Lara were offered fights against Andrade, and they refused to take the fights in 2017.
Canelo is part of this group of duckers and the one with Charlo and Golovkin that ducked him the most. The one fighter who almost took the fight was Billy Joe Saunders, but after testing positive for PEDs, he withdrew from the fight after he came back from suspension. The one spine for Andrade was against Jermell Charlo back in 2013; he signed a fight with Charlo, but Roc Nation offered him a better deal at that time, and he withdrew his contract for more money. However, he called both Charlo’s ever since, and that does not excuse the Charlos for not taking the fight after nine years! That is ridiculous!
The boxing world praised a man that fought Avny Yildirim, Rocky Fielding, Alfredo Angulo, James Kirkland, Callum Smith, Billy Joe Saunders, and inactive Julio Cesar Chavez Jr over a boxer that had three world championships in two weight classes. Andrade has a better record than all the abovementioned, and casual fans still refuse to accept this as true. I know of any boxer since the days of the Black Murderers’ Row that was avoided like Andrade; name one!
In fact, all the mainstream networks and the YTBC in their polling never mention Andrade as a possible fight for Canelo. They pick on their polling Charlo and Golovkin that run far away from Andrade, then actually pick Andrade to fight Canelo. Has the boxing world gone insane? I thought America was the land of the brave and not the land of the duckers! We root for the underdog, and the boxing community has decided to willingly ignore a guy who wants all the smoke in the world. Where are the true boxing fans at? Andrade would gladly accept the fight for the same price Yildirim took the fight for!
Most of Canelo fights always involve controversial elements like rehydration clauses, fighters off their prime, and picking certain boxers over others. We accept all these advantages as normal, and we crown the man the best pound for pound on the planet? “The Athletic” posted a story that headlined “WBC: Canelo Alvarez wasn’t ordered to fight Avni Yildirim. He ‘requested’ it.” and yet, people find a way to excuse him obtaining a free belt by fighting Callum Smith, who actually never unified against David Benavidez to legitimately win the WBC title; Canelo is NOT undisputed until he settles it with Benavidez!
Canelo is a highly technical boxer with great head movement and power. His technical abilities seem to impress the boxing world, but he is also criticized by many true boxing aficionados for his lack of taking risks against certain boxers, he won’t willingly name. If he fights Andrade, he will lose the fight. Caleb Plant showed what we already know, boxers with good legs and slick defense will make him doubt himself. Terence Crawford said Andrade was him at middleweight. Max Kellerman and Andre Ward said Canelo would struggle against Andrade.
His power got him through the fight against Plant, but someone like Andrade will drive him nuts. Eddy Reynoso knows Andrade; that is why he never took the fight. In fact, people forget the interview where Reynoso said back in 2016 that Andrade was very hard to beat. Canelo will lose against Andrade, he knows it, and Reinoso knows it too. Andrade vs Canelo for next year, no excuses! Andrade will beat him!