By Lem Satterfield
Canelo Alvarez has signed a $365 million multi-fight deal with the streaming service DAZN, and will pursue a third crown in as many divisions on December 15 against 168-pound Rocky Fielding.
Yet in doing so the 28-year-old to Alvarez (50-1-1, 34 KOs) of Mexico retains the WBC and “super” WBA middleweight championships he earned by split-decision over 36-year-old Gennady Golovkin (38-1-1, 34 KOs) in last month’s rematch of their draw from September 2017.
Left-handed two-division title-winner Demetrius Andrade (26-0, 16 KOs) awaits Alvarez’s return to the 160-pound weight class, desiring to unify Alvarez’s crowns with his WBO version won last month by four-knockdown, unanimous decision over Walter Kautondokwo (17-1, 16 KOs).
Signed with DAZN, “Boo Boo” Andrade ended the 33-year-old Kautondokwo’s run of 16 consecutive stoppages as well as his own 366-day ring absence since rising from a seventh-round knockdown for a unanimous decision over previously unbeaten 6-foot-5 Alantez Fox in his 160-pound debut.
Andrade’s been approved for a voluntary defense in January, said, WBO president Paco Valcarcel. But after that, the 30-year-old’s father and trainer, Paul Andrade, said his son wants Alvarez, if not, Golovkin.
“We’ve offered to fight Canelo so many times that it’s just a big duck,” said Paul Andrade, whose son is also signed with DAZN, stands 6-foot-1, has elusive skills and carries concussive power in either hand.
“Of course we want to fight Canelo. Most guys want him for the big payday, but we want to fight him so we can whip his ass. Canelo didn’t want to fight us in the past, but, now, they should make him fight us.”
Other than Golovkin and a majority decision loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr. (September 2013), two of Alvarez’s closest bouts were unanimous- and split-decision victories over left-handed former titleholders Austin Trout (April 2013) and Erislandy Lara (July 2014).
“Canelo won’t be able to handle ‘Boo Boo," said Andrade of Alvarez, owner of a unanimous decision victory over four-division champion Miguel Cotto (November 2015). “Lara and Trout don’t have the power of 'Boo Boo,' whose speed, movement and ring savvy will be too much for Canelo."
Andrade, of Providence, Rhode Island, is also taking aim at Golovkin, whose second-round KO of Vanes Martirosyan (36-4-1, 21 KOs) in May ended the loser’s two-year absence since falling by 154-pound split-decision to Lara (May 2016).
Martirosyan’s first career loss was by split-decision to Andrade (November 2013) and the other by unanimous decision to current WBC junior middleweight titleholder Jermell Charlo (March 2015).
“When we wanted to fight Triple-G, he went with Vanes Martirosyan. We’ll fight either Triple-G or Canelo because we wanna whip that ass,” said Paul Andrade. “When we say we want to fight anybody, that’s exactly what we mean. In fact, maybe we should changed Demetrius’ name to ‘Anybody.’”
“Anybody” includes Jermell's 28-year-old twin Jermall Charlo (27-0, 21 KOs), who will pursue his initial WBC interim title defense and his fourth straight stoppage win on December 22 against southpaw two-time title challenger Willie Monroe (23-3, 6 KOs) at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. In victory over Monroe, Charlo’s been mandated by the WBC to face Golovkin.
Also last month, 28-year-old Rob Brant (24-1, 16 KOs) dethroned Ryota Murata (14-2, 11 KOs) as WBA “regular” middleweight champion in a Fight Of The Year caliber toe-to-toe brawl.
“Charlo don’t want to come nowhere near us," said Paul Andrade, calling unification against Brant "another option. We’re gonna sit down with our promoter, Eddie Hearn. We want to fight all the top guys. If Eddie says he’s gonna get a guy, he’s gonna get ‘em."
There is also Andrade’s switch-hitting close friend Daniel Jacobs (35-2, 29 KOs), winner of three straight, including unanimous decisions in November and April against previously unbeatens Luis Arias and Maciej Sulecki since falling by disputed unanimous decision in March 2017 to Golovkin in a bout that ended “GGG’s” 23-fight, nine-year stoppage streak.
In his last fight on October 27, the 31-year-old Jacobs earned his third straight victory by split-decision over Russian-born Ukrainian stablemate Sergiy Dervyanchenko (12-1, 10 KOs) for the IBF’s vacant crown at New York’s Madison Square Garden.
“[Danny’s like] my brother, and I want to see him do good and win. If the money is going to change our lives, then may the best man win, because we’re both looking to accomplish the same goals in life,” said Andrade during a recent interview with FightHype.com.
“And that’s to have a legacy and to go down in history to be in the Hall of Fame. If we can do that without fighting each other, great, but if we have to [fight] to make statements for ourselves, then maybe we can get into it.”
Andrade rose from a first-round knockdown to beat Martirosyan for a WBO junior middleweight title. Andrade’s lone 154-pound defense was by seventh-round TKO of Brian Rose in June 2014, and he later became the only man to stop veteran Willie Nelson, doing so in June 2016 with a three-knockdown, non-title 12th-round TKO in a 154-pound bout.
