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By: Hans Themistode
For unified super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez, he’s seemingly had two careers.
There is the pre-Floyd Mayweather fight version of himself and the current pound-for-pound star who stands before everyone today.
Although he was always considered a terrific fighter, Alvarez took his career to a whole other level after he suffered his one-sided loss against Mayweather in 2013. Just about everyone who’s watched both halves of his career has taken notice of his defensive improvements and new offensive firepower.
In the opinion of Demetrius Andrade however, he doesn’t quite see the humongous jump in his game that everyone discusses. The WBO middleweight titlist does admit that Alvarez has taken steps forward, but they are minuscule at best.
“He’s gotten a little better,” said Andrade during an interview with FightHype. “He’s gotten technically better with his feet work a little bit. He learned how to cut off the ring finally. He should have learned from that Floyd fight but he’s still like a walking forward type guy who learned how to use his head a little bit now. But he’s still just a stationary target for somebody like me.”
For Andrade, he loathes handing Alvarez any sort of compliment, mostly because he believes the Mexican native hears enough of them on a consistent basis. In fact, the two-division champion only says Alvarez has gotten better simply because he doesn’t know the right words to use to describe his marginal improvement.
“He’s gotten better but that’s it. I don’t know what word to use other than better. What’s under it? He’s gotten better in certain things. He got a little better like he’ll slip four or five jabs but I’ve been slipping four or five jabs all of my life.”
Currently, Alvarez is still enjoying his time off following his third-round win over Avni Yildirim this past Saturday night at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Florida. After forcing his man to quit at the end of the third round, Alvarez revealed that he would be taking on WBO titlist Billy Joe Saunders on May 8th.
In the mind of Andrade, Saunders essentially has no chance. Even with the 160-pound belt holder believing that Alvarez truly hasn’t improved that much since facing Mayweather nearly ten years ago, in Saunders, it won’t matter as it’ll be an easy night at the office.
“Billy Joe performances and efforts just die down eventually. They know that he can only do so much. There’s no power behind the sh*t, he’s sloppy with the sh*t. He doesn’t live and eat boxing the same way other people do, like you can tell from his outside living.”
