Demetrius Andrade is not about to let a global pandemic come between him and his money. But if push comes to shove, the middleweight titleholder has a simple plan for mitigating the disastrous effects wrought by Covid-19.

Dock the pay of the superstars in the sport, and use that money to subsidize the finances for the less fortunate. Like himself.

“Maybe stop paying Anthony Joshua all that money,” Andrade (29-0, 18 KOs) said on a recent podcast episode of Boxing with Chris Mannix. “Maybe stop paying Canelo [Alvarez] all that money. Maybe stop paying [Gennady] ’Triple G’ [Golovkin] all that money, and everyone else should be happy with what they’re getting.

Call it the Andrade theory of trickle down economic reform.

“There’s a lot of money out there between the names that I mentioned,” Andrade, 32, said. “The people that are coming up gotta take a paycut? That’s crazy. [Make them take a paycut] and spread it. There’s enough there.”

All four fighters, including Andrade, are aligned with streaming platform DAZN. Andrade and Golvkin share the same promoter in Eddie Hearn. 

“At the end of the day, why do fighters got to take pay cuts when they’re putting their life on the line,” Andrade continued. “It’s just a f--ked up situation…it’s f--ked up…Go pay cut everybody else. I don’t see any other sport taking a pay cut. Quaterback Mahomes [just signed a contact for] $503 million. There’s no pay cuts over [in the NFL].”

When it was mentioned that athletes in other sports leagues, such as the NBA, were indeed taking a pay cut, Andrade fired back, saying the exorbitant wages that those athletes receive help cushion any reduction in pay.

“You take a pay cut off $503 million, you make $200 million or $100 million you still going to be happy,” he said. “But if a fighter’s making $5 million a year and it turns into $2 million and then turns into $1 million…to get f--king punched in the face, black eyes, concussions, all the training, like, nah, bro.”

In this way, Andrade says he is complete agreement with Terence Crawford, the welterweight titleholder who drew attention earlier this summer for refusing to take a sliver less than what he earned pre-pandemic.

“I don’t blame Terence Crawford for saying that I want my money,” Andrade said. “This is what I fight for. This is what I’ve been doing my whole life. I don’t know if it’s a dramatic cut or not, I don’t know [Crawford’s] business, but on my side, and what I know is, if you’re going to [give me] a pay cut, take away the ‘Triple G,’ money, the Canelo money, the Anthony Joshua money. Like those are the pays that need to be cut down.”

Andrade also took a jab at Golovkin, who signed a reported $100 million multi-fight contract with DAZN.

“They should’ve never given him that much money in the first place,” he quipped.

Andrade clarified he has nothing against the fighters per se, but that he simply wants his message to land on the higher-ups.

“I’m saying if you’re DAZN or Matchroom and you’re pay cutting people, the people getting paid the most should be giving it to everybody else – that’s where the pay cuts should be coming from,” he said. “I have no problem fighting anybody when it’s time to fight them. At the end of the day, I know my worth, they know what they’re worth, the people want to get paid for getting theirs heads taken off of each other.

And if it happens that he had to take a pay deduction, say, for a “few hundred grand,” Andrade wants to make sure that he’ll be able to recover that money at another fight down the line. But to expect him to take a pay cut full stop? Over his dead body.

“Canelo is making this much money,” he said. “Anthony Joshua is getting this much money. Pay cut them guys and everybody else should still get some good money, and they’ll still get paid enough! That’s my point. Nothing more or less.”