Demetrius Andrade made it clear as soon as he aligned with Al Haymon’s Premier Boxing Champions last month that Jermall Charlo is the opponent he most wants to fight.

It is unclear, however, when Charlo will return to the ring and if he will move up from middleweight to the super middleweight division in 2023. Andrade considers himself a 168-pounder and has no intention of moving back down to the middleweight limit of 160, thus the former WBO middleweight champion has an alternative to Charlo (32-0, 22 KOs) in mind if that fight doesn’t materialize next year.

“If that fight doesn’t happen right away, what’s the next best [fight]?,” Andrade asked during an interview with BoxingScene.com. “[The winner of] Plant versus Benavidez. That’s a great fight.”

Benavidez (26-0, 23 KOs), the WBC interim 168-pound champion, and Plant (22-1, 13 KOs), a former IBF super middleweight champ, have publicly acknowledged that they’ve agreed to contracts to fight next. The date and site for their pay-per-view main event haven’t been announced, but Andrade expects the 12-round battle between those rivals to be very competitive.

“I think Caleb Plant has a very good chance of winning that fight,” Andrade said. “I don’t see this being a one-sided fight. I don’t know why people think this is what it’s gonna be. Yes, David Benavidez can fight. But is he the best? Is he the most skillful fighter? No.

“So, you have a skillful guy who knows how to fight, who maybe don’t have the most power. But we’re gonna get a good clash. This is gonna be an entertaining fight, I believe. I believe Caleb Plant definitely has the ring generalship to kinda pull rounds off and be safe if he needs to, because David is more of an inside fighter.”

As for the 34-year-old Andrade, he is preparing for his first fight in over a year, a 10-rounder against Demond Nicholson.

Andrade (31-0, 19 KOs), a southpaw from Providence, Rhode Island, and Nicholson (26-4-1, 22 KOs), a hard-hitting, career-long super middleweight from Laurel, Maryland, are scheduled to meet on the Gervonta Davis-Hector Luis Garcia undercard January 7 at Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C. Showtime will televise the Andrade-Nicholson and Davis-Garcia matches as part of a four-fight pay-per-view show (9 p.m. ET; $74.99).

Andrade will fight for the first time since he stopped Ireland’s Jason Quigley (19-2, 14 KOs) in the second round of their November 2021 bout at SHNU Arena in Manchester, New Hampshire. The 2008 U.S. Olympian made his fifth and final defense of the WBO middleweight title in that fight.

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.