A deal has been reached for Billy Joe Saunders’ mandatory defense of his WBO middleweight title against undefeated challenger Demetrius Andrade, according to Boxingscene.
A purse bid had been scheduled for earlier today at the Gaylord Palms Resort & Convention Center in Kissimmee, Florida.
According to WBO President Paco Valcarcel, promoters Eddie Hearn (for Andrade) and Warren (for Saunders) reached an agreement on the fight – so the purse bid was canceled.
Valcarcel indicates that Top Rank was present at the purse bid, likely to submit a sum to secure the fight for the ESPN+ streaming service.
Saunders (26-0, 12 KOs) has been inactive since securing one of the biggest wins of his career – when he traveled over to Canada to dominate David Lemieux over twelve rounds in December 2017 to retain his title.
It was only the third defense for Saunders since capturing the world title from Andy Lee back in December 2015.
Saunders has been plagued by injuries and postponed bouts.
He was scheduled to fight Martin Murray on two separate days in the last few months – and withdrew from both with claimed training injuries.
A deal to face WBC, WBA, IBO champion Gennady Golovkin was in place for August – but that fell through when Golovkin finalized a deal to face Canelo Alvarez in a rematch on September 15th at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
On the other side, Andrade has not been the most active fighter either.
He recently parted ways with career promoters, Banner Promotions and Star Boxing.
It was officially announced earlier this month that Andrade had signed up with promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom. His next fight was being tabbed for October 6th in Chicago, as part of the first Matrchoom USA card on the new streaming service DAZN.
Both promoters indicate that Saunders vs. Andrade will take place in the United States, and Hearn says the contest will be carried by DAZN and Sky Sports.
Andrade (25-0, 16 KOs) has been out of the ring since last October, when he won a twelve round unanimous decision over Alantez Fox. That was his debut bout at the middleweight limit, after holding the WBA’s “regular” title in the junior middleweight division.
- Boxingscene