By Dan Ambrose: David Benavidez told Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn that he wants to face Demetrius ‘Boo Boo’ Andrade after he takes “care of business” in his next fight against David Lemieux in April.
The former two-division world champion Andrade (31-0, 19 KOs) is moving up in weight from middleweight to try and broaden his horizons at 168 to get bigger fights, chiefly a match against undisputed champion Canelo Alvarez.
“This is David Benavidez. I’ve got my upcoming fight with David Lemieux. I feel like first things first, I’ve got to take care of my business by getting past David Lemieux,” said Benavidez to Eddie Hearn on Twitter.
“The next best fight for me, I feel, is Boo Boo Andrade,” said Benavidez. “Demetrius Andrade is coming up to 168, so let’s make it happen, Eddie.”
Hearn has already said that he’s willing to put the fight together between the former two-time WBC super middleweight champion Benavidez (25-0, 22 KOs) and Andrade. He wants it to be a WBC/WBO 168lb title eliminator. The winner of the Andrade-Benavidez would be the n
Unfortunately, Benavidez’s promoter Sampson Lewkowicz is throwing cold water on the idea of David facing Andrade by saying that the money required for him take this fight would be in excess of $7 million.
While that amount might not be a big deal if Benavidez were facing superstar Canelo Alvarez, that’s not realistic for a fight involving Andrade.
“The money needs to be much more than for him [Benavidez] to fight Canelo,” said promoter Sampson Lewkowicz to Thaboxingvoice for a fight between Benavidez and Demetrius Andrade to happen.
“It needs to be much more than that,” said Sampson when told that Eddie Hearn offered Jermall Charlo $7 million to fight Andrade a while back.
“Yes, because it’s not an easy fight [for Benavidez], and he’s a great fighter that whoever you want to put that fight, that’s most likely not so attractive.
“That one needs to be for the money. To talk about it,” said Sampson when asked about his request of $7 million for Benavidez to be offered for a fight with Andrade to happen. “Never,” said Sampson when asked if Benavidez has ever gotten a payday of $7M.
So there it is. Sampson is letting the fans know that there is NO chance of a fight between Benavidez and Andrade unless Demetrius’ promoter Eddie Hearn can come up with MORE than $7 million.
It would be one thing for Benavidez’s promoter to be saying they need more than $7 million if he were facing Canelo Alvarez, but that’s not the case.
But Andrade isn’t in the same league as Canelo, and Matchroom isn’t going to be able to come up with that kind of dough for a fight on DAZN.
Benavidez vs. Andrade wouldn’t bring in enough subscribers for DAZN to justify paying Benavidez that kind of money for a fight against Andrade.
Sampson said it himself. Benavidez has never received a payday of $7 million for any of his fights, which makes it hard to believe that he would ask for that kind of money to fight a nonstar like Andrade. It doesn’t make sense.
The thing is, Benavidez’s star power would increase with a victory over Demetrius, and he would have a better chance of putting enough pressure on Canelo to force him to defend his belts.
Without a significant win on Benavidez’s resume, he’s not in the position to force Canelo to fight him. Beating David Lemieux (43-4, 36 KOs) next April won’t be enough for Benavidez to pressure Canelo to fight him.
Although Benavidez-Lemieux is for the interim WBC 168-lb title, the winner won’t be able to force Canelo to defend against them.
