Matchroom Boxing head Eddie Hearn has offered a “huge” and “substantial” one-fight deal to WBC middleweight champion Jermall Charlo this week to face WBO champion Demetrius Andrade in a unification matchup in May.
Hearn told BoxingScene.com that terms of the deal are similar to the one he just procured with Mikey Garcia, which was a one-fight, $7 million deal, with an option to extend, to face Jessie Vargas on DAZN.
Hearn noted there was also an option for Charlo pact to be a multi-fight deal, if that was a road Charlo wanted to embark on. If Charlo was not interested in such a move, he could simply take the one-fight deal and return to PBC’s preferred TV platforms.
“Whatever [Charlo] wants,” emphasized Hearn.
If Charlo were to fight on DAZN, he would potentially pave a path for himself to fight Canelo Alvarez down the line, Hearn noted. In previous months, Alvarez and his team have identified Charlo as a potential opponent down the line.
“I can’t at the moment, deliver the mega fight to Andrade that he needs. I’ve tried. The guys are not queuing up to fight him,” said Hearn, who promotes Andrade. “It’s kind of like [Charlo and Andrade] need each other. Charlo has got no one to fight, and no one really wants to fight Andrade. So you have to give Charlo all of the money to say ‘come fight with us.’ Because really, Andrade is going to miss the boat in terms of his prime to have these kind of fights. Demetrius does need that marquee fight, and it’s not for lack of trying.”
Both Andrade (28-0, 17 KOs) and Charlo (30-0, 22 KOs) have near-identical resumes, with Charlo, 29, having better wins against the likes of Julian Williams, Austin Trout, Matt Korobov, and most recently, Dennis Hogan.
Andrade, 31, who fights next month against Luke Keeler as a headliner for DAZN, most recently defeated Maciej Sulecki in June.
Whether or not both middleweights will seek each other out as viable opponents will be a development to monitor in 2020.
Manouk Akopyan is a sports journalist and member of the Boxing Writers Assn. of America since 2011. He has written for the likes of the Guardian, USA Today, Philadelphia Inquirer, Men’s Health and NFL.com and currently does TV commentary for combat sports programming that airs on Fox Sports and hosts his own radio show in Los Angeles. He can be reached on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube at @ManoukAkopyan or via email at manouk.akopyan@gmail.com.