By Dan Ambrose: Demetrius Andrade suspects Canelo Alvarez could still choose to avoid fighting him if he’s victorious in his title challenge against WBC interim super middleweight champion David Benavidez on November 25th in their PPV event on Showtime.
Canelo embarrassed Andrade a couple of years ago when he told him to leave his post-fight press conference after his win over Billy Joe Saunders, telling him, “You’re a terrible fighter.” He basically laughed at Andrade when he tried to call him out.
In hindsight, Canelo could have brushed Andrade off in a kinder way instead of publicly humiliating him, but he showed that he had no interest in fighting him and would rather face easy marks like Saunders & Avni Yildirim.
Canelo should fight Andrade if he beats Benavidez, but given the way he’s ignored him in the past, it’s reasonable to assume he’ll want nothing to do with him.
Andrade (32-0, 19 KOs) hopes Canelo won’t elect to swerve him after his victory over Benavidez, but he thinks the Mexican superstar may choose to face Terence Crawford or rematch Dmitry Bivol.
Those are bigger money fights for undisputed super middleweight champion Canelo (60-2-2, 39 KOs) than the match against Andrade, but it would be disappointing to many boxing fans if he chooses to do that.
The naturally much bigger, younger, and more powerful Benavidez (27-0, 23 KOs) is the favorite to beat the southpaw Andrade, but not matter.
Andrade has better boxing skills than Benavidez, and he has a good blueprint to follow after watching how Caleb Plant enjoyed success against him last March.
Chris Mannix: “Canelo can’t avoid you after you win this fight [against David Benavidez]. He didn’t want to fight you at 154; he didn’t want to fight you at 160. I think it would be impossible to avoid you if you win this fight at 168,” said Mannix on his podcast.
Demetrius Andrade: “Listen, you can’t make two dogs fight. Canelo can still avoid it. He’ll be like, ‘I’ll fight Terence Crawford. I’ll fight Bivol.’ Do you know what I’m saying? He can still get away in many other ways, but cool. This is still the biggest fight.”
Mannix: “If you win this next fight and stand up afterward and say, ‘Nobody believed in me.'”
Andrade: “Guadalajara.”
Mannix: “If you stand up there and say, ‘Nobody believed in me,’ don’t say that ‘Nobody believed in me.'”
Andrade: “Why would I say that? What are you talking about? I believe in myself.
Mannix: “If you point to the media and say, ‘None of you guys believed in me.’ I’m going to throw a microphone at them.”
Andrade: “I don’t think we ever had that problem with the media.”
Mannix: “I think everybody will pick Benavidez.”
Andrade: “You think that? I heard different.”
Mannix: “From who?”
Andrade: “From a lot of people. It’s a great fight. I can see how people are looking at the situation because he’s [Benavidez] been more of a subject than I have been. That doesn’t mean he’s better than me.”
Mannix: “You’re preaching to the choir.”
Andrade: “I’m just saying. I’m thankful to David Benavidez and his team for saying, ‘Let’s do it.’ There were some things where they were trying to get out of the situation, but I agreed with what they wanted to agree to.
“‘Listen, if this person did it, and you did it with this person, and you did it with that person, and that person did it with that person, why can’t I get that?’ And they were like, ‘Oh, I’m going to walk,’ and I was like, ‘Take it.’ This ain’t going to be on me. Nope, not when I’m a man of my word now when I say it.”
