By Vadim Pushkin
Last week, Demetrius Andrade (23-0, 16KOs) and his handlers issued a press release to discuss how they were getting prepared to fly out to Germany for a mandatory fight with WBA 'regular' junior middleweight champion Jack Culcay (22-1, 11KOs) on November 5th at the MBS Arena in Potsdam.
But that was surprising news to Culcay and his promoter, Sauerland Event, because the fight had already been scratched from the show.
Sauerland Event won the WBA's purse bid on August 15th, and informed the sanctioning body of their intention to stage the fight between Culcay and Andrade on their November 5th card which featured a WBA title fight between Giovanni De Carolis and Tyrone Zeuge.
After the purse bid, Culcay signed the contract within a few days. A draft of the contract was issued to Andrade's promoters, Artie Pellulo and Joe DeGuardia, but they took a very long time to get back to Sauerland.
Because of the long delay, sources with knowledge of the negotiations told BoxingScene.com that various deadlines, set by the WBA and Sauerland's television partner, were missed.
Since there was no signed contract, both Sauerland and the TV network, Sat-1, did not publicize or promote the fight for November 5.
There were weeks of back and forth negotiations to work out various contractual items like drug testing. Sauerland notified DeGuardia during this period that time was running out, due to the deadline set by the TV network in Germany, but Sauerland was hoping to get an alternative TV date in the near future.
Sauerland and their TV partner became alarmed when Andrade and his handlers made statements that were published on BoxingScene.com on October 10th, where the boxer not only stated that he never signed a contract to face Culcay, but Andrade and his team were demanding to remain in the WBC's tournament to get a shot at world champion Jermell Charlo. Andrade's team was looking to protest any move by the WBC to exclude them from the tournament.
In the last few days, Andrade finally signed a standard contract - which Sauerland objected to - and it was submitted far beyond the deadline of the WBA and their partners on the show.
Sauerland and Culcay were originally preparing for a defense against undefeated Liam Walsh in October, but then the WBA ordered the fight with Andrade.
There is still no clear direction on what Andrade plans to do, since his promoters recently appeared at the WBO's convention in Puerto Rico and asked the WBO to appoint Andrade for shot at the vacant junior middleweight title once Canelo Alvarez moves up a division.
The WBA will likely have to step in and sort the situation out as Culcay wants to fight again as soon as possible.
