Via Jim Calfa: Demetrius Andrade received some bad news on Tuesday with the WBO ordering him to defend his middleweight title against their newly installed mandatory challenger. Janibek Alimkhanuly.
This came after Jaime Munguia forced the previous 160-lb WBO to choose not to take on the undefeated Demetrius ‘Boo Boo’ Andrade (31-0, 19 KOs).
Unfortunately for Demetrius, 33, undefeated 2016 Olympic athlete Alimkhanuly (11-0, 7 KOs) bring a lot of risk and very little reward, because he doesn’t have a huge fan base.
Demetrius should vacate the WBO championship
With this move by the World Boxing Organization, the most logical thing Andrade did was to ignore his 160 lb title and petition the WBO to oblige him to take Canelo Alvarez’s 168 lb title with the organization.
Demetrius could make that move, as the WBO allows champions to increase their weight division with their organization and become an immediate mandatory competitor for the next tournament.
We’ve seen former undisputed cruiser champion Oleksandr Usyk take advantage of this rule with the WBO to become the mandatory No. 1 for heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua. It worked well for Usyk, as he beat Joshua last September to become the three-belt champion.
It is clear that at this point, if Andrade remains at 160, he will continue to be shunned by Charlo, Golovkin, Munguia and the efforts from his promoter Eddie Hearn will go unrequited.
Hearn can’t get the management of other top boxers at 160 to come together to fight Southpaw Andrade because they won’t. He’s too dangerous, and the Southpaw style is a nightmare.
Andrade was hoping for a big fight against Jermall Charlo, Canelo Alvarez, or Gennady Golovkin, but his promoter Eddie Hearn failed to make those matches.
Hearn recently wrote to the WBC asking them to compel Demetrius over Jermall Charlo, but they chose not to make that move.
On Tuesday, the WBO ordered Demetrius to face Janikbek next, giving them 20 days to negotiate a deal before calling for a bid.
If you’re Hearn, you must be chatting with Andrade right now about his potentially vacating the 160-lb WBO title.
Andrade can become mandatory at 168
If Andrade keeps it, he’s going to take a big risk against strong-armed Janibek, and he could lose that fight. It would have been well worth it for Andrade to do this dangerous fight if the money was huge, but it won’t be.
Janibek is not a household name in the United States, so he has nothing to say but a lot of risk.
Assuming Andrade vacated his 160-lb title and was installed as the required standard for Canelo’s 168-lb WBO title, he’d be in position to pick up the strap when the Mexico star vacated it to change direction. he.
If Canelo has a conscience and doesn’t want to be seen as bringing down Demetrius, all the better.
The boxing public will have a great fight, much better than the one Canelo expected to take on WBC heavyweight champion Ilunga Makabu in May 2022.
