Following his TKO win over Billy Joe Saunders at Cowboys Stadium in Texas on Saturday night, boxing pound-for-pound great Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez was involved in a heated confrontation with unbeaten Demetrius Andrade.
The expletive-ridden scenes played out as Canelo conducted a post-fight interview.
Following his capture of Saunders' WBO super middleweight strap, after the Brit's corner threw the towel before the ninth round due to an injury that later proved to be a fractured eye socket, Alvarez had been in good spirits.
Yet he didn't take too kindly to Andrade, who is the WBO's middleweight champion, gatecrashing his party on Cinco de Mayo weekend where 73,000 fans saw him take home all but one strap at 168 lbs.
As Alvarez – who roared to victory by turning up the heat in the eighth round after some felt he had been equally-matched by awkward southpaw Saunders for most of the fight – fielded questions sat alongside trainer Eddy Reynoso and promoter Eddie Hearn, Andrade butted in to grab the spotlight.
"So when can we get something going on?" Andrade asked, which caused Canelo to throw his head down in disbelief and say: "Oh, man..."
"Let’s make it happen. What’s up Canelo?," Andrade continued.
"Congratulations today, though. Good job, baby, good job," he congratulated the Mexican, for which Canelo thanked him.
"I’m a big fan. But what’s up though? When can we make it happen? What you think?," Andrade posed.
"I know [you’re a fan]," Canelo responded, humoring the Rhode Island native at first.
"[But] man, you fight with nobody. You are a champion but you fight with nobody. You won the belt with nobody," Canelo scoffed, repeating a common criticism of 'Boo Boo'.
"Get the f**k out of here man. Please, get the f*ck out of here. It’s my night," the 30-year-old demanded, while clearly starting to get riled.
This caused Andrade’s father to yell: "Don’t you say to him to get out here. F*ck you. Go ahead, come. Come. F*ck you."
"Don’t swear at me. Don’t talk to my dad like that." Andrade seethed.
"I’ll f*ck you up. I just asked you a simple question. What you gonna do? You tough? Watch your mouth, bro. I congratulated you, bro. Watch your mouth."
By now Andrade had gotten on Canelo's last nerve.
"Hey, get the f*ck out of here because I’m gonna f*ck you up right now, motherf*cker. Hey, get the f*ck out of here," he insisted.
"Hey, you are a horrible fighter man," Canelo said.
"You never won against a good fighter. You are a horrible fighter. Horrible fighter. Just pay day, pay day, you want [a] pay day, I know that."
"Come beat me, little b*tch. When I see you, it’s on," Andrade threatened as he was escorted out by security.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. 'I'll see you outside' yeah yeah," Canelo mocked Andrade again, before getting back to reporters' questions.
Canelo told us earlier he’s open to fighting GGG for a third time after he unifies all four 168-pound belts, but that the trilogy bout would have to be at the 168-pound limit. He said only fair since he moved up from 154 to 160 to fight GGG the first time #CaneloSaunderspic.twitter.com/5RJ9eNzbUp
As Alvarez's comments suggest, this fracas might be the closest Andrade gets to facing the four-division champion as there is simply no public interest in the two facing one another in the squared circle.
Andrade could well move up to 168 lbs. But after first unifying the belts with a win over the IBF champion Caleb Plant in September, and becoming the weight class' first undisputed ruler in history, Alvarez has voiced a preference for taking on an aging Gennady Golovkin.
With their series marked at one win for Canelo and one draw, a trilogy bout would do huge numbers on DAZN.
If he sees off the 39-year-old Kazakhstani, it is thought that Alvarez will head back up to light heavyweight after vacating the WBO strap he won there by beating Russian Sergey Kovalev in 2019.
That is now held by American Joe Smith Jr, and Canelo has shown interest in fighting Kovalev's compatriots Dmitry Bivol, who is the WBA king, and Artur Beterbiev, who boasts the WBC and IBF crowns.
Asked by RT Sport in March how he would answer if Hearn offered him a date with Alvarez, Beterbiev confirmed: "We'll tell them ‘yes’… we don’t need a meeting."
Long story short, Andrade has never been so far on the outside looking in - and boxing fans were divided on whether getting in Canelo's face was the right approach.
"Andrade is right to do this sh*t," wrote one on Twitter.
"Everyone ducks him and calls him boring, but now that he's entertaining [by] interrupting press conferences, suddenly he shouldn't be doing that? Ok then..."
"People clown Andrade for never fighting anybody but ignore the fact that top guys haven't tried to fight him. He's tried to fight them, though," concluded another.
People clown Andrade for never fighting anybody but ignore the fact that top guys haven't tried to fight him. He's tried to fight them though
But the brawler of Cape Verdean descent was also ridiculed once more.
"Andrade has never fought in front of more than 73 people. Let alone 73,000," it was said, in reference to the record-breaking American indoor boxing match crowd that came out to see Alvarez.
"Andrade was more exciting during this than in any of his fights," quipped one more critic.
"It's true. Andrade is a horrible fighter with a crap resume that struggled so much in his last fight he started talking funny," another added, in reference to his limp unanimous decision win over Liam Williams last month.
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