By Jeff Aronow: British promoter Eddie Hearn sounded frustrated last Friday night in talking about unbeaten WBO middleweight champion Demetrius Andrade being overlooked by Gennadiy Golovkin, Jermall Charlo, and Jaime Munguia.
While Hearn should have been overjoyed at watching the unbeaten Andrade (31-0, 19 KOs) crush challenger Jason Quigley (19-2, 14 KOs) by a second round knockout last Friday night in their main event fight on DAZN in Manchester, New Hampshire, he sounded distraught.
Hearn doesn’t understand how his fighter Andrade, who should be a superstar at this point, is virtually ignored by the top guys, Golovkin, Munguia, Charlo, and Canelo Alvarez.
Andrade being shutout by the top guys
When Hearn first signed the American Andrade to his Matchroom Boxing stable, he believed that he had a diamond in the rough that he could turn into a superstar within a short time.
Instead, three years later, Andrade is seemingly no closer to stardom now than he was before Hearn inked him to his promotional company, and he’s apoplectic about it.
Hearn feels that Andrade has the potential to be a star just like Golovkin and Canelo, but he’s helpless to get him to the next level because those top fighters won’t agree to face him.
Hearn: “What’s wrong with this sport”
“We need the kind of performances that make everyone go, ‘Wow, that was brilliant,’ and that was brilliant,” said Eddie Hearn to iFL TV on Demetrius Andrade’s second round knockout of Jason Quigley.
“That was explosive, that was dangerous, that was violent, and that was all the things that people like to watch.
“That was a massive statement tonight,” Hearn continued about Demetrius’ destruction of the 30-year-old Quigley.
“We know he was a massive favorite over Jason Quigley, but he completely demolished him, and that is the kind of performance that you can stretch out about and say, ‘This guy needs to get those fights.’
“It’s easy to make excuses when you don’t want to fight someone. ‘Oh, they’re boring, They never knock anyone out, and they don’t entertain.’ So what can you say now? He [Demetrius] went in there and demolished this guy.
“I don’t know the answer,” said Hearn in voicing his frustration at being unable to get middleweight champions Gennadiy Golovkin and Jermall Charlo to fight Andrade. “You offer people twice as much money as they’ve ever made, yet they still don’t want to fight him.
“I hope after that performance enough fans, enough media, and enough people will say, ‘Come on.’ Charlo, 32-0, a great fighter, and an undefeated champion.
“Demetrius, 31-0, an undefeated world champion. Two Americans, what’s wrong with the sport? Do it on their platform [Showtime],” Hearn said.
You’ve got to feel sorry for Hearn, as he thought he had a guy that he could build into the next big thing when he inked Andrade, but he’s not being given the opportunities.
Hearn says that it’s not that way in the UK, where the top fighters tend to want to face each other.
Of course, that’s not always the case, is it? Look at Dillian Whyte as an example of a fighter being shut out in a similar way that Andrade has.
Some of the blame for Andrade’s failure to become a star rests on his shoulders. He’s not always been entertaining to watch, and his tendency to focus on his defense, it’s made him boring at times.
Andrade does well in the first three to four rounds of his fights, but then he gets tired and lazy, and his fights get sloppy.
In Andrade’s contest against Maciej Sulecki in 2019, it looked like he was on his way to scoring an early knockout, but then he eased up on the Polish fighter and wound up laboring to a dull 12 round decision victory.
Demetrius deserves to create a legacy
“It’s not about Matchroom or DAZN. This is about Demetrius Andrade and getting this guy the opportunity that he deserves,” said Hearn about his willingness to have Andrade fight Jermall Charlo on Showtime.
“He [Andrade] deserves to create a legacy, and I believe he’s good enough, and we’ll only find out when he’s in those kinds of fights. We said earlier, Jaime Munguia, ‘Hopefully, I’ll get an eliminator,'” said Hearn in repeating something Munguia said after his recent win over Gabe Rosado.
“You [Munguia] don’t need an eliminator. You’ve got a fight [Andrade] right there. Gennadiy Golovkin, hopefully, he beats [Ryota] Murata. That’s a great unification fight, but only time will tell. We just have to keep trying.
“I don’t think he’s [Demetrius] a horrible style,” said Hearn when told that Andrade has a horrible style that makes the other top fighters want to avoid him. “Liam Williams had success in the fight with Demetrius Andrade [last April].
“Other fighters have had success against him. He’s come out of the traps real fast on virtually every occasion, and he’s been extremely exciting. Sometimes, he’s labored in the second half of his fights, and he’s let it go to points when he probably shouldn’t have.
“Tonight, he didn’t. So there’s no way that Charlo against Demetrius Andrade is not a brilliant fight. It’s two guys with extreme skill levels with so much on the line. Jaime Munguia and Golovkin have the styles to create a great with Demetrius Andrade.
“We’ve all got to push for it. DAZN has got to push for it, and you have to push for it, the fans, and the media. With performances like that, there’s at least more passion behind people saying, ‘Come on, give this guy [Demetrius] what he deserves,'” Hearn said.
What hurts Andrade’s chances of getting the big-name fighters like Canelo, Golovkin, and Charlo to want to fight him is he doesn’t have a huge fanbase, and his viewing numbers aren’t sky-high.
At this point, Andrade needs to fight more often and, of course, look for knockouts each time. Andrade doesn’t have enough time left in his career for him to slowly build a big enough fanbase to get Golovkin, Canelo, and Charlo to want to fight him.
So, he’s got to be very busy, even if it means taking on lesser opposition like we saw last Friday night with Andrade’s mismatch against Quigley.
Hearn asks why Charlo won’t fight Andrade
“The question to him [Charlo] is, why don’t you want to fight Demetrius Andrade? And I can’t see a valid answer. There’s a load of money, it’s a brilliant fight, it’s a unification, and look who he’s fighting [Dennis Hogan, Juan Macias Montiel, and Brandon Adams].
“I’m not knocking him,” said Hearn about Jermall Charlo. “He’s a great fighter, but he’s got to say to PBC, ‘I want a unification. It’s there, and there are no excuses. He might win; he could be a favorite, I don’t know. I want to see it, and it’s such a shame. That’s the problem with boxing.
“Jaime Munguia is a great fight [for Andrade], and Golovkin is a great fight. There isn’t as much of a demand over here [U.S] to push people into great fights, but that’s the kind of performance that will create that kind of demand,” said Hearn.
WBC middleweight champion Jermall Charlo (32-0, 22 KOs) is content with the level of opposition he’s fighting over on SHOWTIME, and he doesn’t want to mess things up for himself by taking a risky fight against Andrade that he’s not 100% certain he can win.
When you’re making millions like Charlo is fighting the likes of Dennis Hogan, Brandon Adams, and Juan Macias Montiel, why would you want to spoil things for yourself by fighting a live body like Andrade and potentially lose?
In a nutshell, that’s why Andrade is being shut out by Charlo and likely the exact reason why Golovkin and Canelo won’t fight him. Look at the guys Canelo is facing nowadays.
He’s not taking any risks fighting weak champions at 168 and cherry-picking cruiserweight champion Ilunga Makabu. Canelo isn’t crazy. He’s making sure he makes easy money without risk and will not face someone like Andrade ever because he might lose.
