Demetrius Andrade can’t understand why Jermall Charlo won’t accept a one-fight offer to face him on DAZN.
Eddie Hearn, Andrade’s promoter, has said he emailed Charlo a $7 million offer early in December to box Andrade in a middleweight title unification fight. That offer, according to Hearn, wouldn’t require Charlo to participate in more than one fight on DAZN, which means Charlo could return to fight on Showtime or FOX after facing Andrade.
“They say that they’re their own promoters, they can do what they wanna do,” Andrade told BoxingScene.com on Wednesday, referring to the Charlo brothers’ Lions Only Promotions. “Then come on over here and fight. I don’t understand what the problem is. Or give me the offer to go over there and fight. What type of offer is Showtime willing to give me to go over there and fight Jermall Charlo?”
Andrade, the WBO middleweight champion, recently signed a four-fight extension with Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing USA and DAZN. That deal would allow Andrade to fight Charlo or someone else on another platform, as long as he returned to DAZN for his following fight.
“If Showtime sends me the deal [to fight Charlo], I can go over there and fight, and then come back to DAZN,” Andrade said. “You know? And the same way for them. Eddie Hearn said that he’s willing to pay, and if they wanna stay, they can stay.”
Six of Charlo’s past seven fights have been broadcast by Showtime, one of two networks with which Al Haymon, Charlo’s adviser, has production deals.
The 31-year-old Andrade (28-0, 17 KOs) and the 29-year-old Charlo (30-0, 22 KOs), who owns the WBC middleweight title, have had difficulty securing the types of career-defining fights they repeatedly have stated that they want. In Charlo’s case, his affiliation with Haymon’s Premier Boxing Champions has been an impediment in making fights against Canelo Alvarez and Gennadiy Golovkin, the two highest-profile fighters within the middleweight division.
Andrade, however, is contractually committed to the same streaming service, DAZN, that has Alvarez and Golovkin under contract. Since neither of those two fights has even come close to happening for him, Andrade is willing to battle Houston’s Charlo, Ukrainian contender Sergiy Derevyanchenko or Billy Joe Saunders to strengthen his credibility.
Andrade and England’s Saunders (29-0, 14 KOs) were supposed to fight in October 2018, but Saunders tested positive for a banned substance and was stripped of his WBO middleweight title. Andrade, a southpaw from Providence, Rhode Island, instead defeated Namibia’s Walter Kautondokwa by unanimous decision to win the title that Saunders relinquished.
For now, Andrade has settled for fighting Ireland’s Luke Keeler, the unknown underdog he’ll encounter Thursday night in Miami. DAZN will stream Andrade-Keeler as the main event of an 11-fight card from Meridian at Island Gardens (7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT).
Andrade hopes, however, that Charlo accepts Hearn’s offer.
“Eddie said he offered $7 million at first,” Andrade said. “It might be more later on. I’m not sure. Or it might be less. But $7 million is a lot of money – I don’t care who you are. Mikey Garcia’s coming over here [to DAZN] for $7 million.”
Garcia (39-1, 30 KOs), who previously had competed on Haymon’s PBC cards, is scheduled to box Jessie Vargas (29-2-2, 11 KOs) in a 12-round welterweight fight DAZN will stream February 29 from Frisco, Texas. Garcia-Vargas will headline a show at Ford Center at The Star, the Dallas Cowboys’ training facility.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.