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Eddie Hearn couldn’t even remember the name of Jermall Charlo’s upcoming opponent.
And after Demetrius Andrade showed some vulnerability Saturday night, Hearn can’t see any reason why the WBC middleweight champion shouldn’t pursue a title unification fight against the unbeaten southpaw he promotes. Hearn said following Andrade’s points victory over Liam Williams that an Andrade-Charlo fight doesn’t need to be carried by DAZN, the streaming service with which Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing is partnered.
Hearn emailed Charlo (31-0, 22 KOs) a $7 million offer in December 2019 to fight Andrade on DAZN, but he is willing to take Andrade to Showtime or FOX to make that bout happen. Showtime, which has televised Charlo’s past three fights either live on the network or on pay-per-view, will broadcast his optional title defense against Mexico’s Juan Macias Mantiel (22-4-2, 22 KOs) on June 19 from an undetermined venue in Houston, Charlo’s hometown.
“You know, if you’re a champion watching that [Andrade-Williams] fight, firstly, as Demetrius says, you know, he’s done his job,” Hearn told DAZN’s Chris Mannix after Andrade defeated Williams. “It’s not his responsibility to convince the other champions to fight him. Champions are supposed to fight champions. OK? You got guys out there like [Jermall] Charlo, you know, his brother’s doing a great job. He’s going through his division fighting champions. [Jermall] Charlo is fighting, um, I can’t even remember his name. What’s his name? Right, Juan Montiel. Well, you know, Conor McGregor said it best, you know, I don’t know what he’s doing.
“He’s got an opportunity – if he doesn’t wanna fight on DAZN, we’ve made him a massive offer, Demetrius will go and fight on FOX. It’s not a problem. He’s not expensive. It’s gonna cost them the same as [Sergiy] Derevyanchenko. As you said, [Jermall] Charlo against Demetrius Andrade is a big, big fight. It’s two great American world champions. Why are the champions not looking to face Demetrius Andrade? He was hurt tonight. He was tired tonight. He can’t make 160 forever.”
The 33-year-old Andrade (30-0, 18 KOs) has called for fights with Charlo, IBF/IBO champ Gennadiy Golovkin (41-1-1, 36 KOs) and Canelo Alvarez (55-1-2, 37 KOs), but he hasn’t secured a career-defining fight since he joined Matchroom and DAZN nearly three years ago.
The Providence, Rhode Island, native made a mandated defense against Wales’ Williams (23-3-1, 18 KOs), who withstood a second-round knockdown and pushed Andrade during a rough 12-round fight at Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida. Andrade won by wide distances on all three scorecards (118-109, 118-109, 116-111), but Williams buzzed him with a right hand late in the ninth round and Andrade appeared tired during the championship rounds.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.