 turned down the opportunity to face WBO middleweight champion Demetrius Andrade 27-0 (17) on June 22, according to promoter Eddie Hearn.){kind=link}
Billy Joe Saunders 27-0 (13) turned down the opportunity to face WBO middleweight champion Demetrius Andrade 27-0 (17) on June 22, according to promoter Eddie Hearn.
Last October Saunders, the reigning WBO 160-pound champion at the time, was due to defend against Andrade in Boston but he was denied a Massachusetts boxing licence after a failed drug test. The WBO subsequently stripped him of his title and Andrade claimed the crown with a shutout victory over late replacement Walter Kautondokwa.
More recently it was announced that Saunders would be contesting the vacant WBO super middleweight title against unheralded Shefat Isufi after it was reported that champion Gilberto Ramirez would be moving up in weight. Ramirez subsequently denied he was relinquishing the title, leaving Saunders’ next move in limbo.
Matchroom Boxing boss Hearn, who promotes Andrade, says he offered the June fight to Saunders.
“He was supposed to be fighting Billy Joe Saunders, but Billy Joe Saunders pulled out of the fight [with Andrade], so the WBO will probably determine the new mandatory,” Hearn said to iFL TV.
The 31-year-old American southpaw was keen to fight on the Anthony Joshua versus Jarrell Miller undercard at Madison Square Garden in New York City on June 1, but Hearn already sees Andrade as a headline act in his own right.
“In the meantime, Andrade will take a voluntary in May or June. He wants to fight on the AJ card. [I said] ‘You’re a WBO junior middleweight champion. You’re a headline act. I’m positioning you to fight the winner of Canelo-Jacobs or Golovkin,” Hearn continued.
“‘I really want to box on an AJ card’. I said, ‘No, no, no,’ so we’ll see.”
Hearn added that he was surprised that Saunders turned down the opportunity to face Andrade in favour of a world title shot at a higher weight that didn’t come to fruition.