By Barry Holbrook: Promoter Frank Warren won the purse bid with a winning bid of $305,000 for the Demetrius Andrade vs. Zach Parker for the interim WBO 168-pound title. The fight is reportedly set for November 5.
Hopefully, Andrade, 34, (31-0, 19 KOs), doesn’t suffer an injury that could cause the postponement. He recently had a shoulder problem that has kept him out of the ring lately.
Parker (22-0, 16 KOs) has plenty of power, but whether he can land his shots on the defensive-minded Andrade remains to be seen. It’s reasonable to assume that if this is the same Andrade we saw in his wins over Liam Williams and Jason Quigley, Parker is in for a long night.
For Andrade, this is the fourth consecutive opponent he will face from the UK since 2020. When promoted by Eddie Hearn, Andrade defeated Jason Quigley, Luke Keeler and Liam Williams. Those fights failed to interest American fans, unfortunately.
Andrade probably has a good idea of how good Parker (22-0, 16 KOs) is because he wouldn’t take this fight if he thought he was in over his head.
This will be Andrade’s first fight at super middleweight as he hopes to capture the WBO 168-pound title to put him in position to challenge undisputed champion Canelo Alvarez for his belts.
The Mexican fighter has already turned down a fight with Andrade, calling him a “horrible fighter” when he called him out after his victory over Billy Joe Saunders.
You can argue that the real truth of why Canelo doesn’t want to be a part of the Andrade fight is because it’s a bad style matchup for him, and he could lose. Andrade would probably beat Saunders with no problem, and yet Canelo had no qualms about fighting him.
Parker, 28, has recent wins over these fighters: Marcus Morrison, Sherzod Khusanov, Vaughn Alexander and Rohan Murdock.
Parker hasn’t fought at the same level of competition as Andrade, and he lacks the Olympic experience that he possesses. That doesn’t mean he can’t win, but it will require Andrade to age overnight.
At 34, Andrade is getting older and hasn’t fought anyone as good as Parker in a long time. Parker is like a bigger, stronger version of Liam Williams.
