By Jack Tiernan: Eddie Hearn says he’s ready to make the fight between Demetrius Andrade and David Benavidez next. Hearn is reacting to the news of Benavidez (25-0, 22 KOs) saying he’d like to face Andrade (31-0, 19 KOs) in his next fight after he moves up to 168.
Benavidez vs. Andrade would be a HUGE fight with massive ramifications for the 168-lb weight class.
If undisputed champion Canelo Alvarez is planning on staying at super middleweight, he would have to fight the Benavidez – Andrade winner, as there would be too much pressure on him not to.
For the time being, Benavidez has a fight against David Lemieux on tap for April for the interim WBC super middleweight title. As for Andrade, 33, he’s going to be fighting #1 Zach Parker for the interim WBC 168-lb title next.
Interestingly, Hearn is ready to forget about the Parker fight for the former two-division world champion ‘Boo Boo’ Andrade and go straight into the Benavidez fight instead.
It makes sense for Andrade to fight Benavidez right away rather than taking the match against Parker, seeing that it would put him in immediate contention for a fight with Canelo.
Beating Parker WON’T make Andrade the mandatory for Canelo’s WBO title because their fight would be for the interim 168lb title. It’s NOT an eliminator.
Hearn wants to match Andrade against Benavidez for the WBC/WBO title eliminator with the winner to be undisputed 168-lb champion Canelo Alvarez’s mandatory challenger.
“We love the Benavidez fight. The route was to fight [Zach] Parker and then fight Benavidez,” said Hearn to iFL TV. “We’d be willing to go straight into a Benavidez fight right now.
“So if he [Benavidez] likes that fight, I’d be happy to discuss it and get it made,” Hearn continued.
It sounds like Hearn doesn’t want to mess around and waste time. Andrade, 33, doesn’t have forever to get the big fights after being sidestepped by Canelo, Gennadiy Golovkin, and Jermall Charlo for years.
If Benavidez is serious about wanting to fight the slick southpaw Andrade, Hearn is ready to make it happen in 2022.
Benavidez needs to take care of former IBF middleweight champion Lemieux next in their fight in April, and then Hearn can start working on the Benavidez-Andrade fight for June or July. Benavidez would be facing the toughest opponent of his career in facing Andrade, and it’ll be interesting to see how well he does.
“He’s a great fighter. Why not make it happen? I’m tired of talking s*** back and forth with fighters that don’t want to fight,” said David Benavidez to Fighthype on him wanting to fight Demetrius Andrade at super middleweight.
