Demetrius Andrade admits that he’s not sure if Jermall Charlo will agree to fight him now that he’s signed with PBC and fighting on the same network as him on Showtime.
In what has to be interpreted as a bad sign, Jermall hasn’t responded to the frequent callouts by Andrade (31-0, 19 KOs) in the build-up to his fight this Saturday night against Demond Nicholson (26-4-1, 22 KOs) in their 10round fight on the undercard of Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis vs. Hector Luis Garcia at the Capitol One Arena in Washington, D.C.
When Charlo (32-0, 22 KOs) is interested in fighting someone, he lets fans know. For example, Jermall was all over Dmitry Bivol recently, approaching him and asking him for a fight in front of the media. Jermall looked needy.
Afterward, Jermall was still talking about hoping that Bivol would fight him. Now contrast that behavior to what we’re not seeing from Charlo in reaction to Andrade calling him out over a month.
What seems apparent is that Charlo isn’t interested in fighting Andrade, and you can understand why. Charlo likely knows he can’t win, so he’s not going to accept the offer from Andrade.
He won’t beat Bivol either, but at least if he gets trounced by him, he can use the excuse that he was fighting a much bigger guy than him. In other words, the same excuse Canelo used after he was schooled by Bivol last May.
“We’re taking one fight at a time because I want to make sure we can go in there and secure the bigger fights,” said Demetrius Andrade to Fight Hub TV about him signing with PBC.
“I’ve been in the game too long. We don’t need to get into anything longevity-wise right now to strategize what’s best for them and myself.
“It looks like that, and hopefully, it goes that way. I don’t know what of the bigger names are willing to do that right now,” said Andrade when asked if he was told by PBC that if he signs with them, they’ll give him the big names that he wants to fight.
“I know I’m not their first priority because I’m new to the table. We got to gain trust and figure out that we’re going this for the right reasons.
“That’s what we’re here for. We’re going to figure out if they don’t want to fight or it’s boxing politics,” said Demetrius when asked if he thinks Jermall Charlo will fight him. “I believe Showtime puts the best fights out there for a long time, and they know I’m here for that.
“DAZN offered me a great deal of money for me to be active, but there was nothing coming from the other side at that point. So I had to do what’s best for me, and I’m doing what’s best for me now.
“I’m still fresh; I’m still young. No harm happened. It’s me and whatever you want to do. I was with DAZN and he [Jermall Charlo] was with Showtime. There was no way that was going to happen unless Showtime sent me an offer to go over there and fight him.
“From their mouth, they said they didn’t want to make the fight happen,” said Andrade when asked why didn’t fights against Canelo Alvarez, Gennadiy Golovkin and Jaime Munguia happen when he was with DAZN.
“GGG said, ‘I don’t want to fight him. I’m going to sit back and wait for Canelo for the payday.’ The Munguia team said, ‘Stay away from Andrade.’ Billy Joe tested positive for our first outing, and then we tried to do it again, and he just didn’t want to do it.
“The next thing I know, he goes up to 168. I was willing to fight him, and then Canelo offers him a deal for a less-challenging bout,” said Andrade.
