Saul ‘Canelo’ Álvarez prides himself on taking on all-comers, his three-time opponent Gennady Golovkin would say the same for himself and Jermall Charlo projects the confidence of fearing no man.
According to two-weight world champion, Tim Bradley, that’s not true in any case when it comes to one fighter.
Fans will remember Canelo’s post-fight press conference when he famously chastised Demetrius Andrade for being ‘a horrible fighter’ and just looking for a ‘payday.’
In Bradley’s mind, as spoken on Pro Box TV, the super-welterweight and middleweight champion from Rhode Island was being avoided by the Mexican.
“Teams up with Matchroom, offers Canelo Alvarez $40 million to face him. $40 million. Guess who turned it down? Canelo Alvarez. And guess who Canelo Alvarez decided he wanted to fight? It was Kovalev he decided to fight, and he was gonna make $35 million to face him.
Does that sound like a that’s been ducked to me? Absolutely. When you’re getting offered more money to fight a particular guy and you don’t take it to go an easier path, that is a duck to me. That’s a duck from Canelo Alvarez.”
Bradley went on to admit that undefeated Andrade has been poorly managed and promoted for stints of his career, and does consider that when saying he hasn’t had the opponents he perhaps should have.
But the fighter-turned-analyst doesn’t stop at Canelo – he considers Charlo and Golovkin to have also swerved ‘Boo Boo.’
“It states right here that Andrade offered Jermall Charle $7 million to face him. And guess what happened after that? Jermall Charlo said no thank you, it’s okay. Boo Boo started going to these guys’ press conference. He went to two press conferences of Jermall Charlo, and they said absolutely not they don’t want to face him.”
“He even went to GGG – I forget who he was fighting – but he actually stepped into the ring. He wasn’t allowed to step in the ring, but he was trying everything he possibly can to make these fights with these big names out there. Do GGG, Jermall Charlo, Canelo Alvarez, all these guys walked away from big money, because they didn’t want to face who? Andrade.”
“When it got real hot in there, bro, everybody jumped ship because they didn’t want to face what they saw on the film.”
Now up at super-middleweight apparently intent on forcing the fight with Álvarez, Andrade faces number one challenger and former champion, David Benavidez, on November 25 in what will be one of Showtime PPV’s last efforts in the sport of boxing.
The WBC has ordered the winner to face Canelo in the first half of 2024.