By Sean Jones: Demetrius Andrade doesn’t know if Canelo Alvarez will finally agree to face him after he beats the ‘Mexican Monster,’ WBC interim super middleweight champion David Benavidez on November 25th.
It’s doubtful Canelo will agree to fight Demetrius, even if he defeats Benavidez (27-0, 23 KOs) because the Mexican star won’t want to taste defeat again after what happened last year against Dmitry Bivol.
Canelo has been ultra-careful ever since losing that fight, focusing exclusively on middle-of-the-road opposition and an inactive 154-pounder Jermell Charlo to keep socking money away.
The Bivol fight was obviously a mistake on Canelo’s handlers’ part, but they’re not going to do that again by allowing him to face Andrade and having him spoil the money that is flowing in.
Canelo is very shrewd in his opponent selection, and that’s not going to next year. Without the help of the WBC, Andrade won’t be able to force Canelo to fight him if he defeats Benavidez.
According to Robert Garcia, Canelo wants to be the first billionaire boxer, and that obviously means he’s not going to want to take chances against a slick southpaw like Andrae.
Andrade (32-0, 19 KOs) points out that Canelo told him and Benavidez to fight somebody to earn a fight with him, yet he turns around and faces opposition that has never fought anyone of note during their careers, such as Rocky Fielding, Avni Yildirim, and John Ryder.
Will Canelo fight Andrade?
Canelo is reportedly planning on fighting Jaime Munguia next in May 2024, and that’s a guy who has only fought since at 168, beating Sergiy Derevyanchenko by a narrow twelve round unanimous decision last June. Canelo-Munguia is an awful fight, but it’s easy money for Canelo, so it’s right up his alley.
The second fight that is being mentioned for Canelo next year is against David Benavidez, which means that they believe that Andrade will lose to him next month.
It would be hard work for Canelo to fight Andrade or Benavidez, and it’s not realistic that he wants a back-breaking fight like that at this stage of his career.
Canelo is like a modern-day Samuel Brannan, a guy who became a billionaire during the California gold rush in the mid-1800s, selling pick axes & supplies to prospectors doing the hard work of digging up the yellow metal.
Alvarez will not want to get in there with Andrade or Benavidez because those fighters are just as difficult as his match last year against Bivol, and like I said, that was a mistake.
Brian Custer: “Canelo, after one of his victories, said, ‘Go fight somebody.’ Do you believe the winner of this fight gets the Canelo fight?” said Brian to his YouTube channel.
Demetrius Andrade: “I don’t know. F**k Canelo.”
Custer: “He’s been avoiding both of you guys [Andrade & David Benavidez].”
Andrade: “Canelo, my hat goes off to him. He does what he does. He has the luxury to do whatever he wants to do. You can’t tell me to go fight somebody, and I can name a bunch of fighters that you fought that haven’t fought nobody.
“Rocky Fielding, Avni Yildirim, [John] Ryder. Do you know what I’m saying? Ryder and some of these guys could be tough fighters.
“Some of them might not be, but that doesn’t matter when you know my pedigree is [2008 U.S] Olympian, when you know my pedigree is world champion, when you know my pedigree is I can box your ears off.
“Therefore, cool. I fight, and beat David Benavidez, does that get me the Canelo fight? I don’t know. We got to go talk to the higher-ups and figure out how to force it, but you can’t make two dogs fight unless they want it.”
Andrade avoided for years
“No, Boo Boo wasn’t avoided for 15 years. He was avoided in 2021. That’s when he was avoided,” said Tim Bradley to ProBox TV about Demetrius Andrade.
“Boo Boo started going to these guy’s press conferences. He went to two press conferences of Jermall Charlo, and they said, ‘Absolutely not, they don’t want to face him.”
It’s not just Canelo that has been avoiding Andrade. He’s been avoided by top guys at 154, 160, and now 168. Where Andasde is at now is just a continuation of what he’s dealt with his entire career fighting in the other weight classes.
“He even went to GGG, and he actually stepped in the ring, and he wasn’t allowed to step in the ring,” said Bradley. “He was trying everything he could to make these fights with these big names out there.
“So, GGG, Jermall Charlo, Canelo Alvarez, all these guys walked away from big money because they don’t want to face who? Andrade, a guy that supposedly hadn’t fought anybody.
“Well, if he hasn’t fought anybody, why wouldn’t you want to fight him? If he didn’t have skills, why wouldn’t you want to fight him? He has the skillset, people. Yes, in the past, bad management, bad promotion, I get it. He turned down some fights that he probably shouldn’t have turned down.
“When it got real hot in there, everybody jumped ship because they didn’t want to face what they saw on the film,” said Bradley.
“The guy has been avoided stylistically, which is another thing. It’s a tough style to fight. We’re talking about skills because there’s a lot of skilled guys out there, but Boo Boo is a very difficult style. He’s hard to look good against.
“The Kovalev fight, even though Canelo was moving up, it was an easier fight than fighting a guy like Demetrius. For less money, he [Canelo] moved up to fight a guy and also a legacy fight because he was fighting a guy for a 175-lb world title.
“They knew what they were doing. They were very smart getting that fight. This was Canelo’s team. They were very close to Kovalev’s last fight because they knew in between that he was an older guy who liked to celebrate some. So, they got him at the right time.
“So, yeah, definitely it was an easier fight than Boo Boo for Canelo. Did you [Andrade] get ducked for 15 years? No, 15 years is not accurate, but in some of those big fights, those match-ups that we wanted to see, yeah, he’s been avoided,” said Algieri.
“I think he has been ducked,” said Paulie Malignaggi about Andrade. “By getting offered that small amount of money in those fights, it’s obviously not helping his ability to move around. You got to understand that this kid was an Olympian in 2008, Andrade.”
