Early last week, Julius Julianis reported that David Benavidez was looking to fight Demetrius Andrade after Jaime Munguia’s team predictably bailed on a proposed clash with “El Bandera Rojo.” I considered sharing it here, but ultimately declined; it turned out that Sampson Lewkowicz was talking out his rear last June when he told Dan Rafael that Benavidez had agreed to face Morrell and it’s hard to imagine Andrade actually accepting a major fight.
Well, Rafael wound up confirming the Benavidez-Andrade news last night, so here we are.
With Mauricio Sulaiman admitting that he’ll go against his own sanctioning body’s regulations and delay Benavidez’s (27-0, 23 KO) mandatory title shot until next year, Benavidez seems keen on eliminating any ambiguity as to his place atop the super middleweight pile. He risked his interim title to put an impressive beating on Caleb Plant in March and now faces the quintessential high-risk, low-reward opponent in Andrade (32-0, 19 KO).
Now 35 years old and having squandered any other championship opportunities by ditching fights with Janibek Alimkhanuly and Zach Parker, it’s now or never for “Boo Boo” to become a three-division champion and secure the Canelo fight of his dreams. For my money, he’ll struggle here. His style is built around putting the fear of God into his opponents with early violence before cruising down the stretch, which isn’t going to work against a functionally indestructible puncher with height and reach advantages.
But hey, at least he’ll finally fight someone better than Vanes Martirosyan and Liam Williams.