Mexican star Canelo Alvarez has a lot of options as a fighter period, and he has plenty of options for his next fight. Set to box on Mexican Independence Day weekend, September 14, Canelo has been linked to: Sergey Kovalev, Gennady Golovkin, Jamie Munguia – and now Demetrius Andrade.
According to a news story from Dan Rafael of ESPN.com, Andrade, unbeaten and the current WBO middleweight champ, is very much in the frame for the September 14th fight, to go out on DAZN (both Canelo and Andrade boxing on the big platform). Eddie Hearn confirmed to ESPN.com that he has today been speaking with Eric Gomez of Golden Boy with regards to Andrade making a quick turnaround (he beat Maciej Sulecki this past Saturday night of course) and fighting Canelo just over two months on from his last fight.
Gomez said that he has spoken with plenty of other people also, but that Andrade, 28-0(17) and a southpaw, was a “viable opponent.”
“There’s interest,” Gomez said of a Canelo-Andrade fight. Hearn says his fighter certainly wants it:
“I spoke with Eric Gomez and Robert Diaz and they asked if Demetrius would be available to fight Canelo in September,” Hearn said. “The answer is a big yes and although I don’t think we are first choice, it’s the undisputed fight and one Demetrius would be 100 percent ready for.”
If he did fight the slick, seriously talented Andrade, Canelo would arguably be facing his stiffest challenge at 160 pounds barring Golovkin. Andrade may not be the biggest puncher or the most exciting fighter to watch, but he sure is fast, hard to hit and a brilliant boxer. If he could put it all together on fight night, maybe Andrade would be capable of giving Canelo absolute fits.
Beating him might be something else entirely but fans would be hard-pressed to criticise this match-up if it happened. Indeed, with fights taken against GGG, Danny Jacobs and now perhaps Andrade, Canelo’s quality of opposition would be very, very good no doubt about it.
Canelo does insist that he only wants to fight the best, and Andrade is one of the very best at 160 pounds today.