Canelo Alvarez is slated for a December 6 fight, likely in San Antonio at the Alamodome, but his opponent is still up in the air. One potential opponent has been ruled out though-WBO junior middleweight titlist Demetrius Andrade.
Andrade is the youngest of three possible challengers named by Golden Boy president Oscar De La Hoya recently; the other two candidates are James Kirkland and Joshua Clottey.
Andrade, 26, is unavailable because he will be gunning for the WBO middleweight title as well. "Kid Chocolate" Peter Quillin was slated to defend his title against Matt Korobov but pulled out of the fight, vacating his belt in the process.
Another option the WBO had was to allow Korobov to fight Billy Joe Saunders for the vacant title-Top Rank CEO Bob Arum has made it clear he's upset about the decision to move forward with the Andrade fight, and he's particularly angry with Andrade's promoter Artie Pelullo.
"I spoke to Joe [DeGuardia] and I have no problem negotiating with him, but Artie I will not talk to. The deal we made was that Korobov-Saunders goes in England and Andrade fights the winner in 90 days and Andrade gets a spot on the undercard in England," Arum said.
"And now Artie claims that never happened. Nobody's going to do that to me. That's unconscionable. The WBO has now mandated Korobov-Andrade, so I will talk Joe DeGuardia, who is an honorable guy. But I will not speak to Pelullo after what he did to me."
Pelullo has responded to Arum's claims, and admitted Arum had requested that the Korobov-Saunders fight be allowed to happen, but didn't guarantee Andrade a spot on the undercard.
"I'm sorry Bob feels that way," Pelullo said. "Bob called me last Friday and asked if we would step aside and allow them do to the (Korobov-Saunders) fight with the winner to fight Demetrius in 90 days. That part is correct. I said we would agree as long as Demetrius was on the card in England to defend his junior middleweight title.
"Bob said he'd call me on Saturday after he talks to Warren about it and he never called me and we never had a deal. Because Bob never called me back like he said he would, I assumed he was unable to make the arrangement with Frank to include Demetrius on the card in England and we went ahead with the petition. I am glad the WBO did the right thing."
Andrade is 21-0-0 with 14 knockouts, and considered one of the sport's fastest-rising stars. He has power, but is best-known for his counter-punching and defensive prowess. With that skill set, he was likely not an ideal matchup for Alvarez, who has looked bad against premier defensive boxers like Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Erislandy Lara.
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