By Dan Ambrose: WBO has confirmed that the purse bid for the Demetrius Andrade vs. Zach Parker for the interim WBO 168-lb title will be taking place this Thursday, February 24th at their headquarters in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Zach Parker is like a smaller version of Joe Smith Jr and is a murderous puncher. This will be a tough fight for Andrade.
Demetrius will be the favorite against the 27-year-old Parker, who hasn’t fought anyone in the upper tier at 168 since turning professional in 2015.
There’s a HUGE imbalance in experience between the former two-division world champion Demetrius and Parker, and that will likely play a factor in their fight.
Andrade (31-0, 19 KOs) is moving up in weight to take on the #1 WBO ranked contender Parker (22-0, 16 KOs) for the interim 168-lb title. The fight won’t make the winner the mandatory to Canelo Alvarez, but it’ll put them in position to eventually get a shot at the belt.
It’s widely believed that Canelo will relinquish the WBO title when the World Boxing Organization does order him to defend the tile if it involves him having to face Andrade.
Demetrius’ promoter Eddie Hearn has had a devil of a time trying to set up fights for the Providence, Rhode Island native since he signed him to his Matchroom Boxing stable.
The British promoter perhaps didn’t realize how difficult it would be to sign a talented American like Demetrius, not knowing how in the U.S, it’s impossible for slick fighters to get the fights that they desire.
Unless you’ve got the popularity of a Floyd MayweatherJr, you’re going to have problems if you’re a slick fighter like Andrade, Terence Crawford, and Shakur Stevenson.
Although Canelo says Demetrius is a “terrible fighter,” his avoidance of him betrays his true thoughts. He clearly respects Demetrius, and once can perhaps go further to say that Canelo might even fear him.
Demetrius got some bad news last week in discovering that David Benavidez’s promoter said that they would need more than $7 million for them to consider facing him. They would need more money than a Canelo fight would pay.
That’s the highest form of respect, but it’s also bad news for Andrade because he’s not going to get an opportunity to fight the highly ranked Benavidez (25-0, 22 KOs).
Zach Parker has excellent power, but he’s never fought anyone good enough to know how good he is during his short career.
Parker’s last eight wins:
- Marcus Morrison
- Sherzod Khusanov
- Vaughn Alexander
- Rohan Murdock
- Steven Crambert
- Darryl Williams
- Geard Ajetovic
- Adasat Rodriguez
Parker has power, but his experience is so limited that he’s likely going to be way over his head when he gets inside the ring with Andrade.
