Demetrius Andrade might have a compelling foe waiting for him in the wings of the 168-pound stage.
The longtime (and long suffering) middleweight titlist is reportedly looking to move up from his current weight division and try his hand at landing big fights at the super middleweight limit. The southpaw from Rhode Island has been frustrated that none of the top names at 160, from Gennadiy Golovkin to Jermall Charlo to Jaime Munguia, seem to be interested in fighting him. Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated reported that Andrade may vacate his WBO 160-pound title, which he has defended for the past three years, and move up to 168 to possibly face Britain’s Zach Parker in an elimination bout that would line the winner up to face undisputed 168-pound champion Canelo Alvarez.
That news had one fixture at 168-pounds licking his chops with glee. Like Andrade, former super middleweight titleholder David Benavidez of Arizona has been desperately trying to entice a big name to join him inside the ring.
"Oh, exactly, I’d just seen he's coming up to 168," Benavidez told FightHype.com when asked about Andrade. "I would love to fight Andrade, too, bro. That’s a good fighter. I just feel like, for myself, [to have] the experience to be the fighter that I want to be, to have the legacy that I want to have, I would love to fight him, too.”
Benavidez added, “It’s not an easy fight.”
Indeed, given his defensively minded orientation and relatively subpar drawing power, the 33-year-old Andrade (31-0, 19 KOs) is generally seen as a high risk/low reward proposition. On the other hand, his promoter, Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Boxing, has claimed he has offered purses to other fighters well above what the market dictates. But the hard-charging, volume-punching Benavidez (25-0, 22 KOs), to his credit, does not seem bothered by Andrade’s lack of commercial and entertainment appeal.
Benavidez may have had a better case for himself in landing that fight if he was still a titleholder. He held the WBC 168-pound title twice previously but lost them both times due to incidents outside of the ring. The first time, in 2018, he tested positive for cocaine; the second time, in 2020, he came in overweight ahead of his title defense against Roamer Angulo.
Moreover, it’s not clear how feasible a Benavidez-Andrade match-up is, since the two fighters are aligned with rival promotional entities. Benavidez is handled by Premier Boxing Champions. The 25-year-old acknowledged the sport’s inherent political divisions but is hoping that cooperation is possible.
“I don’t know,” Benavidez said. “I would push for it (the Andrade fight). I’m not scared of nobody. That’s a fight that I want. By the time my career’s over, I want to know that I did as much as I could possibly to actually call myself the best.
“These promoters need to come to a deal and make all these fights happen. There are so much good fighters on each platform and sometimes it’s hard to make it happen. I don’t know. I think it would be better for the sport if everyone just worked with each other but sometimes that doesn’t happen.”
Asked where he would foresee such a fight taking place, Benavidez suggested Las Vegas.
“I don’t think he would fight me in Phoenix,” Benavidez said. “I don’t think I would have that control, like, ‘you gotta come fight me in my home territory.’ Vegas would be a good place for both of us. Or maybe New York, Texas. Wherever they want to make it.”
Benavidez is reportedly scheduled to face Montreal’s David Lemieux in the Spring. Benavidez is coming off a seventh-round technical knockout of Kyrone Davis at the Footprint Center in Phoenix, Arizona.
Andrade’s last bout was a second-round TKO over Jason Quigley at the SNHU Arena in Manchester, New Hampshire.
