The World Boxing Association (WBA) ruling, which recently ordered a new purse bid for the Demetrius Andrade-Jack Culcay bout, showed that there is more to the story than the Sauerland Promotion version of events which caused their WBA Junior Middleweight World Title fight to be cancelled.

Ed Farris of A-Team Promotions (Andrade’s co-promoter) said, “The original Sauerland contract was never even given to Andrade because it had ridiculous clauses in it, allowing Sauerland to change the date of the event with virtually no notice, which is against purse bid rules. There were additional clauses in there as well, which would have penalized Andrade $100,000 (virtually Andrade’s entire purse) for missing a single press conference half way around the world, with very little notice! It was clear to us that Culcay’s side was trying everything they could to force us to pull out. What wasn’t reported was that Demetrius signed a binding bout contract as soon as it was sent to him, almost an entire month prior to the fight. Not to mention the fact that the purse bid contract is binding in itself! When the WBA intervened on October 24 and issued their own standard contract requiring compliance within seven days, Demetrius signed his within 24 hours of receiving it.” (Per the WBA purse bid rule D.11, which allows the WBA to force the execution of its own contract for disputes between the two parties when the WBA recognized that the 31-page Sauerland agreement made it all but impossible for Andrade to sign.)

Ed Farris continued, “Demetrius wanted to get back in the ring ASAP, so we tried like hell to make this work. Needless to say, I’m disappointed about the thought of having to go thru the purse bid process all over again. The purse bid agreement was a binding legal contract, yet Demetrius just spent the last two months training for nothing! It was Culcay’s side that didn’t sign the simple four page WBA bout contract within the seven day imposed deadline, not our side, and I have the signed contracts to prove it. Culcay’s side stated the fight was cancelled four weeks ago, which was absurd, because they were still negotiating with our side just a week prior regarding a minor issue with the gloves. We have emails to prove that as well. Why would they be continuing to negotiate with us if they had already cancelled the bout four weeks earlier? The truth is that they have tried everything they possibly could to avoid putting Culcay in the ring with Andrade, including filing petitions with the WBA just hours before the purse bid was to take place in an attempt to stop the bid. They never expected to win the bid in the first place, but gambled that our side was going to bid much higher. I have no idea when Demetrius is going to step in the ring again, but I can tell you these failed negotiations sure as hell had nothing to do with him or his team. The reason that this fight didn’t happen lies solely on Sauerland Promotions and that is a fact.”

Demetrius Andrade was clearly disappointed to hear the bout would no longer be happening. He said, “I signed everything that was put in front of me as soon as I received it, so it was a surprise to hear that our team was being blamed for the fight being cancelled. I put in countless hours of training and sparring in preparation for this fight. Jack Culcay and I both had plenty of time to get ready. This wasn’t a fight on short notice. It’s been a crazy last few weeks, and as of Sunday, I didn’t even know whether I needed to fly to Germany or not! Right now, I just want to move forward with my career and give the fans the fights that they deserve. I am ready to get in the ring with anyone in my division to prove that I’m the best 154 lb fighter in the world.”