Demetrius Andrade on Canelo fighting Ryder in May: “Another easy fight”

By Boxing News - 01/01/2023 - Comments

By Jim Calfa: Demetrius Andrade isn’t impressed with Canelo Alvarez’s expected next fight against John Ryder in May on DAZN.

The stated reason given by promoter Eddie Hearn for undisputed super middleweight champion Canelo (58-2-2, 39 KOs) looking to take a fight against interim WBO 168-lb champion ‘The Gorilla’ Ryder (32-5, 18 KOs) is because he needs a tune-up after hand surgery.

Boxing fans that know the sport see it as another example of Canelo cherry-picking a flawed fighter from European rather than taking on talented opposition Stateside like Andrade, Jermall Charlo, David Benavidez, David Morrell, or Caleb Plant.

If Canelo hadn’t fought so many subpar fighters in 2021, fans and people like Andrade would be willing to give him a pass for fighting the 34-year-old Ryder in May.

Canelo taking “another easy fight”

“Just more bull s**t, bro. That’s just what it is. Just another easy fight. Another situation for him to go in and say ‘I’m fighting the best’ but come on, he’s not the best,” said Demetrius Andrade to Thaboxingvoice, reacting to being told that Canelo Alvarez plans on defending his undisputed super middleweight championship against John Ryder in England next May.

“Nah, I did my thing. I did my Rocky Balboa s**t. I’m not going to rely on chasing down Canelo when Canelo don’t want to do it. He’d rather fight John Ryder,” said Andrade when asked why he stopped calling out Canelo in 2021 after he kicked him out of his press conference after his victory over Billy Joe Saunders.

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“I know the truth. You can’t even ask Canelo questions because you can’t have interviews with him. You can’t give him real backlash because you’ll never speak to him. I understand. It’s a business for everybody.

“Everybody wants conversations with people, but if you mention Demetrius Andrade, there’s no conversation. There’s no questions.

“Of course, he’s the worst of options when you have Jermall Charlo, when you have Demetrius Andrade, when you’ve got the rematch with Bivol, when you’ve got other champions [David Morrell] in the same weight class as him,” said Andrade in responding to being told that John Ryder isn’t the worst of options for Canelo.

“You sound like a Canelo fan over there. You’d rather see him fight John Ryder than Charlo because he’s inactive? What kind of excuse is that?” said Andrade, reacting to the interviewer saying Ryder is a better option for Canelo than Jermall Charlo.

“I’m inactive too. What does that mean, don’t fight me? How much longer are we going to keep allowing this to happen? I understand that he [Canelo] fought some people. Golden Boy did a great job of having him fight at the tail end of a lot of great fighters.

“Now everybody is tied up, so John Ryder is cool, bro,” said Andrade.