Demetrius Andrade (32-0, 19 KOs) will be in the challenger role, fighting interim WBC super middleweight champion David Benavidez (27-0, 23 KOs) in the twelve round main event on November 25th on Showtime PPV.
Fans on social media are overwhelmingly picking the 26-year-old Benavidez to win, but he looked pretty average in his last fight, barely beating Caleb Plant last March.
Plant won five of the first six rounds before he emptied his gas tank at the halfway point, allowing Benavidez back into the fight. Andrade isn’t the type that gasses out, so he has an excellent chance of outboxing Benavidez to win a decision on November 25th.
Benavidez faces his toughest opponent to date against the former two-division world champion ‘Boo Boo’ Andrade at the Michelob ULTRA Arena at Mandalay Bay Resort in Las Vegas.
Benavidez’s older brother, Jose Benavidez Jr., is supposed to be facing Jermall Charlo on the undercard, but it’s unclear whether that fight is happening.
It wasn’t announced today as part of the Benavidez-Andrade fight card, which could mean the negotiations hit a snag. Given how inactive Jermall has been, it wouldn’t be a huge shock if he had second thoughts about taking the fight.
The Benavidez vs. Andrade fight has been stewing for quite some time, as the negotiations had been moving at a snail’s pace.
At times, it sounded as if Benavidez’s father, Jose Jr, was dragging his feet, making the same excuses he made when they chose not to accept the challenge from the talented WBA secondary 168-lb champion David Morrell Jr.
It’s understandable why Benavidez didn’t take that fight because Morrell is a huge threat to him, and the money wouldn’t be absurd because he’s not a big name yet.
Benavidez’s best wins:
Caleb Plant
Ronald Gavril – *controversial decision in first fight
David Lemieux
Roamer Alexis Angulo
Anthony Dirrell
Ronald Ellis
Is it too late for Andrade?
“I love the fight more after seeing Canelo the way he was talking after Jermell Charlo fight. I love boxing; I’m excited about boxing because it makes me maybe hope that he’s considering the winner of this fight,” said Paulie Malignaggi to Probox TV about today’s announced fight between David Benavidez & Demetrius Andrade for November 25th.
“If I could write the script myself, Canelo would attend this fight [Benavidez-Andrade], and then he gets in the ring after the winner gets a win, and then you set this up, and you get everybody’s mouth watering for a big, big fight.”
“I know Canelo is too much of a big shot to do it. I get it, I get it, but you know what? A man can dream, a boxing man can dream, and we can set it up in the ring. Maybe push each other and get going. Benavidez and Canelo have had a lot of bad blood as far as the talking back and forth.
Paulie Malignaggi needs to forget about his pipe dream of Canelo Alvarez jumping into the ring to challenge the Benavidez vs. Andrade winner afterward because it’s not going to happen.
Canelo’s next two fights will likely be against Jermall Charlo & Terence Crawford. He’s not going to want to fight a slick southpaw like Andrade or the light heavyweight-sized Benavidez.
The winner of the Benavidez-Andrade fight will need to go in another direction, perhaps a rematch or a fight against Dmitry Bivol if they’re feeling courageous enough to want to face him.
Benavidez might need to move up to 175 if he wants to get the biggest payday possible against Bivol or Artur Beterbiev because he’ll be wasting time sitting & continuing to wait on a fight that may never happen against Canelo.
Of course, Benavidez could always stay at 168 and fight WBA secondary champion David Morrell Jr, but it doesn’t seem like he fancies his chances against the talented Cuban.
Andrade also owes Canelo a smack after the way Canelo did him in that Post-fight press conference at that Matchroom show,” said Malignaggi. “So you know what? This would be great. This kind of promotion. I was involved in one or two of these kinds of promotions.
“These are the promotions that get people excited. You got a chance to make a great fight and do it that way. Having said that, is it too late for Andrade? Is he a little older?” said Malignaggi.
Demetrius can’t stand in front of Benavidez
“I was at his fight with Liam Williams a couple of fights [in April 2021] ago in Fort Lauderdale, a fight nobody went to, by the way,” said Malignaggi. “I was like, ‘Oh, this is great. It’s right down the street from me, and he got hurt with a right hand from William. Williams hurt him.
“I don’t know about Andrade’s chin at this point. He got hurt with a right hand. He won the fight, and he’s won since. He’s won one or two
fights since, but again, is he getting a little older?”
In the Liam Williams fight, Andrade got careless because he was dominated by the slow British fighter, and he ended up getting nailed by a big shot that buzzed him early on. However, Andrade got his bearings and continued his domination afterward.
What’s important is that Andrade doesn’t stand in front of Benavidez because he would put him in a position to get hit a lot by the combinations he likes to throw. What Plant showed is that Benavidez struggles with movement, and he can’t do much when he’s unable to get to his opponents to drop his bombs.
“Is his punch resistance there because he is more hittable?” said Malignaggi about Andrade. “He’s NOT as boring of a fighter as Canelo tried to make him out to be. He’s a physical guy. He bullies you early on and then goes back into that technical boxing. Let’s not make it like this wasn’t excuses for guys avoiding Andrade all these years,” said Malignaggi.
Canelo commented on Andrade being a boring fighter as an excuse because he didn’t want to fight him and risk getting beat.
