Demetrius Andrade on Janibek Alimkhanuly: “I’m not wasting my time”

By Sam Volz: Demetrius Andrade took a shot at Janibek Alimkhanuly this week, saying that the WBO middleweight champion couldn’t “carry my bags to the gym.”

Andrade says he’s not interested in fights that waste his time, as he wants the more prominent names, like Jermall Charlo, Canelo Alvarez, Gennadiy Golovkin, David Benavidez, and Caleb Plant.

Unfortunately, the slick southpaw Andrade (31-0, 19 KOs) doesn’t have anything to offer any of those fighters in terms of a world title, and he’s not ranked high enough at 168 to force a fight with undisputed super middleweight champion Canelo.

“I know what I’m capable of doing. I know what opponents, fighters, they’re trying to line me up against. It wasn’t worth anything for me,” said Demetrius Andrade to Fighthype about why he chose to vacate his WBO middleweight title rather than face Janibek Alimkhanuly.

Last July, then WBO 160-lb champion Andrade had been ordered by the World Boxing Organization to defend against his mandatory Janibek (13-0, 9 KOs). Rather than doing so, the 34-year-old Andrade vacated his WBO belt and decided to move up to super middleweight.

In hindsight, Andrade should have held onto his WBO middleweight title and defended it against Janibek rather than vacating.

At least if Andrade had kept his WBO belt, he’d have a valuable bargaining chip to lure the inactive WBC middleweight champion Jermall Charlo to fight him.

Without a title and now fighting in a different weight class that Charlo has never fought in, Andrade is in a weakened position to try and get a fight with him.

“Me and GGG are in the same lane, the same generation, era. That’s what we should be clapping for, not Janibek and trying to make it seem like this dude is doing something because he fought a few guys like that. Like, come on.

“He [Janibek] can’t even carry my bag to the gym. What are you talking about? I’m not wasting my time.”

Andrade is fighting against Demond Nicholson (26-4-1, 22 KOs) on the Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis vs. Hector Luis Garcia card on January 7th on Showtime PPV at the Capitol One Arena in Washington, D.C.

It’s difficult for Andrade to look good in turning down a fight against the unbeaten Janibek in favor of facing Nicholson with no title on the line and a dim-looking future in which he made not get a crack at a belt for a couple of years.