Demetrius Andrade is now being considered by Golden Boy Promotions as the next opponent for Saul Canelo Alvarez on September 14, according to Dan Rafael of ESPN. Andrade is one of a number of elite level fighters that is under consideration for the Mexican star to fight in his next contest on DAZN. The other fighters that are in the running are as follows: Sergey Kovalev, Gennady Golovkin and Jaime Munguia.
Of those names, Andrade might be the easiest of the bunch for Canelo to beat. Munguia has power, and he would be looking to KO Canelo. Unlike Andrade, Munguia has excellent stamina to fight hard for a full 12 rounds.
Canelo’s trainer Eddy Reynoso was in attendance for Andrade’s fight last Saturday night against Maciej Sulecki at the Dunkin Donuts Center in Providence, Rhode Island. Reynoso liked what he saw of the undefeated Andrade (28-0, 17 KOs) with him pitching a shutout in winning the fight by a wide 12 round unanimous decision by the scores 120-107, 120-107 and 120-107. After the bout, Reynoso gave the green light for Andrade to enter the pool of contestants in the running for superstar Canelo Alvarez’s next fight on September 14 on DAZN. Andrade looked sensational in putting on a Pernell Whitaker level defensive performance against the badly befuddled Sulecki.
Eric Gomez says Andrade a viable opponent”
Golden Boy Promotions president Eric Gomez told ESPN.com, “There’s interest,” Gomez said. Andrade is a “viable opponent. Canelo wants to fight the best and we’re giving him a few options so he can make a final decision. He’s in the loop on everything. Yes, I had a conversation with Eddie [Hearn]. I’ve had conversations with few people about opponents. There are a few options out there for Canelo,”
Andrade would need to work hard on his conditioning for him to have a chance of beating Canelo. ‘Boo Boo’ Andrade gassed out a little in the championship rounds [9 to 12] in the Sulecki fight last Saturday. If not for Sulecki failing to recognize how exhausted Anrade was, he might have knocked him out. Andrade was flailing around in a state of exhaustion in the last four rounds. He was trying to showboat in front of his boxing fans, and it was embarrassing to watch.
It’s still unknown whether Andrade will be the guy that gets the fight against Canelo, because Golden Boy are interested in setting up a fight between the Mexican star and WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev. He’s already rejected the offer given to him by Golden Boy. If they give up on Kovalev, then that’ll leave Munguia, Golovkin and Andrade as the final three options. Kovalev is an interesting opponent for Canelo. There isn’t much time for Golden Boy to put a deal together for Kovalev to fight Canelo, however.
It’s believed that GGG has little chance of getting the fight against Canelo for September. Those two will likely fight each other in May of next year. WBO junior middleweight champion Munguia, 22, is a new addition to the field as a possible opponent for Canelo. Munguia would attract a lot of interest in a fight against Canelo, even though he would be badly over-matched in the experience department.
Canelo needs Andrade’s belt to unify the 160 pound division
Andrade’s WBO title is the last belt that Canelo needs to become the unified middleweight champion. Although some boxing fans would say that Canelo only holds the IBF and WBA titles now that the WBC has tagged him as their Franchise champion, he would still be recognized as the unified champ if he beats Andrade. The WBC Franchise title counts as one of the WBC’s world level belts.
It was thought previously that Canelo would wait until 2020 to go after Andrade to capture his WBO belt, but he could surprise people by going after the title now rather than next year. Canelo wanted GGG to fight Andrade for the WBO belt, but Golovkin hasn’t shown the desire to fight for the title. He’s just looking for Canelo fight and not much else at this point in his career.
Canelo would be sending GGG a message by fighting Andrade
Canelo ignoring Golovkin to take a fight with Andrade would be his way of telling him that he’s not relevant enough for a fight. Golovkin needs to make himself relevant by fighting WBC champion Jermall Charlo, but he probably won’t do that because he might lose.
Andrade calls Canelo out
“Let’s go, Canelo,” said Andrade in calling out Canelo following his win over Sulecki last Saturday night. “It’s right here. Let’s do it. No more running, no more games. Let’s put it all on the line and see who is the best. Mano a mano. Viva Mexico!”Where’s Canelo?”
Canelo would be making Golovkin look bad if he’s the one that accepts the challenge to face Andrade. GGG hasn’t shown the interest to take on Andrade, and there are some who feel that he doesn’t want to be made to look bad by the American. Even though Canelo and Golden Boy Promotions CEO Oscar De La Hoya made it clear that they want Triple G to win a world title first before he comes asking for a third fight, he’s not agreed to do this. Golovkin fought Steve Rolls, a lower ranked contender, last month on June 8, and looked less bad. GGG beat Rolls by a fourth round knockout in his first fight of his six-fight DAZN contract.
Since then, Golovkin and his promoter Tom Loeffler have made it clear that their first priority is to setup the trilogy fight with Canelo. They don’t want the Andrade fight. GGG and Loeffler don’t seem to be listening to Canelo and Golden Boy with them telling Golovkin they want him to win a belt. Their mentality is DAZN wants the Canelo-GGG trilogy fight, so it’s going to happen for that reason. It puts Canelo in a tough position, because he’s facing a guy in Golovkin who isn’t trying to stay relevant by fighting other champion level fighters. GGG should be the one that is volunteering to fight Andrade, but it appears he doesn’t want that work.