Eddie Hearn appears to be one stop away from getting off the Demetrius Andrade express.
The head of Matchroom Boxing indicated in a recent interview that he expects Andrade, the WBO middleweight titlist from Rhode Island, to move onto a different promotional handler after his scheduled May 21 super middleweight fight – Andrade’s debut at the debut – against England’s Zach Parker at Pride Park Stadium in Derby, England, Parker's home turf.
The 168-pound WBO interim title bout between the 34-year-old Andrade (31-0, 19 KOs) and Parker (22-0, 16 KOs) will be promoted by Frank Warren, who beat out Hearn in a purse bid held last month. Warren submitted a winning offer of $1,834,050; Hearn came up short, turning in a bid of $1,750,000.
Hearn said there is essentially no point in continuing a promotional relationship with Andrade, as neither Hearn and his streaming partner, DAZN, nor Andrade are able to chart out a future that can be mutually beneficial. Hearn admitted that his inability to deliver a “big fight” for Andrade contributed to the decision. He also implied that Andrade, a tricky southpaw with limited commercial appeal, failed to do his part by drawing subscribers to the DAZN app.
“I expect this to be his last fight with Matchroom, to be honest with you,” Hearn told Pro Boxing Fans. “I think that we’ve sort of worked the best we could for Demetrius Andrade without delivering him the big fights that he needed.
"We tried everything. It’s not his fault, and I don’t think it’s our fault either. I think after this fight he should look at the option out there available to him. We’ve got options for him, we’ll present them. We’ve been working real well together but without any real benefit with each other, if that makes sense.
He hasn’t been in the fights that have been delivering for us; we haven’t been delivering the big fights to him.”
Hearn signed Andrade in 2018 shortly after he announced a lucrative deal with DAZN to help expand the upstart company’s boxing operation in the United States. Andrade was among one of the first top American fighters Hearn had courted. At the time it was considered a smart move for Andrade to link up with Hearn as many of the top middleweights were under the DAZN umbrella, including Gennadiy Golovkin and Canelo Alvarez. But Andrade was never able to get those ostensibly “house” fights. An effort to make a fight with middleweight titlist Jermall Charlo, who is aligned with rival entity Premier Boxing Champions, never went anywhere either. Even fights against rising middleweights associated with DAZN, like Mexico’s Jaime Munguia, were never truly on the table for Andrade.
Andrade’s bout ledger under Hearn is a who’s who of mediocrity: Walter Kautondokwa (from whom Andrade won the vacant WBO middleweight title), Artur Akavov, Maciej Sulecki, Luke Keeler, Liam Williams, and Jason Quigley, the last an outright mismatch. Andrade agreed to an extension with Hearn in 2020.
Still, if the competition was always lacking, the same cannot be said for compensation. With Hearn, Andrade has made millions.
If the Parker bout on May 21 is the last fight for Andrade, Hearn made it clear there was no animosity.
“Unless we can deliver the big fights, if someone else can, he should take that route and move on,” Hearn said. “We love Demetrius but he’s at a stage in his career where he really needs the big fights.
“If we can land one, I’m sure he’ll work with us, but if someone else can land one that’s the route he should look at as well.”
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