There was a plan in place for Demetrius Andrade. Multiple actually.
Eddie Hearn always had difficulty landing his star two-division champ a big-time fight. But, as arduous as it was, he believed he had the platform, DAZN, and the access to certain fighters such as Canelo Alvarez, Gennadiy Golovkin, and Jaime Munguia to get it done.
Ultimately, while he tried, the longtime promoter was only able to feed Andrade bottom feeders. In 2019, however, Hearn made a big push to secure a middleweight unification between Andrade and Jermall Charlo.
Two strong, skillful Americans with loud fan bases? Hearn loved that idea. So, at the tail end of 2019, Hearn revealed that he slid a seven million dollar contract offer across Charlo’s desk. Yet, for whatever reason, talks didn’t just stall, they never took place.
Several years have passed since then but not a whole lot has changed. Both Andrade and Charlo are still undefeated, although they now compete in different divisions. Also, their skill sets are still some of the best around.
The now 35-year-old doesn’t like to spend too much time thinking about the past. But while he’s focusing on becoming a three-weight world champion, he becomes a bit annoyed when Charlo is the subject.
For most of his career, Andrade believes he was avoided. And while he was always hesitant to say that Charlo was amongst those who wanted no part of him, Andrade is totally convinced that his fellow American did everything that he could to avoid fighting him in 2019.
“Definitely for sure,” Andrade told BoxingScene.com when asked if Charlo avoided him all those years ago. “Because the money was greater, the viewership was gonna be greater. I think it was the perfect time for it to happen.”
Activity hasn’t been the best friend of either man. With Charlo fighting just twice since 2019 and Andrade just four times, both men are attempting to change that. As for a matchup between themselves, Andrade is brushing that off. At the moment, all signs point to the 35-year-old facing current WBC interim titlist, David Benavidez.
Although he doesn’t want to continue to reopen old wounds, Andrade wanted to address one final point over his failed negotiations to face Charlo.
Of course, the Houston native was and still is in bed with Premier Boxing Champions while primarily fighting on Showtime. Andrade, as previously mentioned, fought on DAZN, although he now fights under the PBC umbrella as well.
Naturally, opposing networks took the brunt of the blame for their unification clash going up in flames. Andrade, nevertheless, recently revealed that his old contract with DAZN allowed him to be flexible and do as he pleased.
“My contract with DAZN, I had a third party agreement where I can go and do some shopping. If you can match it from Matchroom then cool. If not, I can go make way.”