By Sam Volz: Demetrius ‘Boo Boo’ Andrade posted on social media to let his fans know to keep calm following his decision to pull out of his fight against Zach Parker.
Andrade (31-0, 19 KOs) and Parker were supposed to fight for the interim WBO super middleweight title. However, Andrade opted to pull out of the fight, which makes sense given that he wouldn’t have received a huge purse for the fight.
The former two-division world champion Andrade is rumored to be in the process of a much bigger fight than the Parker clash at 168. It’s unclear who the opponent is for Andrade, but it would make sense if he were to face David Benavidez or WBA ‘regular’ super middleweight champion David Morrell.
“Boo Boo Andrade: We just getting started. Keep calm🤫😏 #itsmeagain 🇺🇸🇨🇻@velozboxing85 @ddelgado7,” said Demetrius Andrade on Instagram.
Andrade wanted to fight Parker to become the WBO 168-lb mandatory for undisputed super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez. However, that’s not going to happen now.
But even if Andrade did take the fight and defeat Parker, Canelo would likely have vacated his WBO title to avoid fighting him. Canelo has not shown any interest in fighting Andrade in the past, and that’s not something that would change if he became his mandatory with the World Boxing Organization.
Andrade recently vacated his WBO middleweight title rather than defend against Janibek Alimkhanuly. That would have been a fight that was more trouble than it was worth for the 34-year-old Demetrius.
Andrade won the WBO 160-lb title in 2018, hoping that he could use the belt to get a lucrative fight against Canelo, Gennadiy Golovkin, and Jermall Charlo.
Unfortunately for Demetrius, none of those fighters showed any interest in fighting him, and he soon found out that he was no better off at 160 than he was when he held the WBA & WBO 154-lb titles.
Andrade is this era’s version of Paul Williams. Like Williams, Andrade has been avoided by the top fighters at 154 and 160. By moving up to 168, Andrade is hoping he can put himself in a position to force Canelo to fight him, but it doesn’t look promising. It’s more likely to be the case that Andrade will need to settle for fights against Benavidez and Morrell rather than getting a shot at Canelo.
