Via Charles Brun: Demetrius Andrade will face Zach Parker on May 21 for the WBO interim super middleweight title at Pride Park Stadium, in Derby, UK.
Demetrius has a chance to beat 27-year-old Parker back home in front of his fans, who will be cheering him on like crazy.
If you are Andrade, it would be a good idea to make sure you score a knockout goal in this match as winning a decision can be very difficult.
This will be a good opportunity for Andrade to test whether Parker is as good as some boxing fans believe. Parker has power, but he’s never fought anyone world-class in his career. Instead of fighting talented boxers, Parker became domestic level fighters:
- Sherzod Khusanov
- Marcus Morrison
- Vaughn Alexander
- Rohan Murdock
- Steven Crambert
Tired of waiting for the big fights at 160 that never came to fruition, 34-year-old Andrade (31-0, 19 KOs) is hitting 168 in hopes of getting a showdown with Canelo Alvarez. Good luck.
Whether Demetrius can fight against Canelo remains to be seen, but he can at least put himself in a position to face David Benavidez, Caleb Plant, or Danny Jacobs.
Andrade winning the WBO interim super-middleweight title doesn’t guarantee he’ll fight the badass Canelo, because he still won’t be a required opponent.
Canelo will not face him. Even if Andrade becomes the must-have Mexican star, he can choose to ignore him or, better yet, go blank. We’ve seen Alvarez do it before to avoid the imperative.
I guess it’s better than being 160 and facing little-known British boxers whose promoter Eddie Hearn has been up against him.
“Andrade is a heavyweight and we know this, but he is slowly moving his weight to super medium, that is Zach’s natural territory and he is a monster in this weight class, ” Promoter Frank Warren said.
“Other British and Irish boxers have struggled to get rid of Andrade, but Zach is the complete one. Not only does he make a terrible punch, but he is also tall and technical with an excellent boxing brain.”
Thinking the grasslands would be greener in the middleweight division, Andrade moved up to the weight division in 2018, defeating Walter Kautndokwa to win the vacant WBO belt. This is after Billy Joe Saunders vacated the title.
To be fair, if Saunders had kept the WBO belt and defended it against Andrade, he would have lost badly and never made it to the big game against Canelo Alvarez in 2021.
Andrade successfully defended his WBO middleweight title against this series of lackluster contenders:
- Artur Akavov – UD 12 win
- Liam Williams – UD 12
- Jason Quigley – TKO 2
- Luke Keeper – TKO 9
- Maciel Sulecki – UD 12 in
If Andrade is selected to retain his WBO middleweight belt, he will have to defend against Zhanibek Alimkhanuly because, initially, Jaime Munguia did not want to join the challenge to challenge him for his title.
