Sanchez: Canelo is the only one De La Hoya has left

By Boxing News - 04/26/2016 - Comments

1-CaneloPrepares4Khan_HoganphotosBy Allan Fox: Last October, WBA middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin demolished Golden Boy Promotions fighter David Lemieux in eight easy rounds at Madison Square Garden in New York. At the time, Lemieux was picking up a lot of fans with his exciting style of fighting. He was a big draw in Canada, and he had many followers at the time.

The loss of Lemieux left Golden Boy only Saul “Canelo” Alvarez as a big money fighter in their stable. Abel Sanchez, the trainer for Golovkin, thinks Golden Boy doesn’t want to risk their last remaining money fighter Canelo Alvarez against Golovkin because if he loses the fight, then they won’t have anyone else in their stable.

Golden Boy Promotion CEO Oscar De La Hoya’s motto is ‘the best against the best.’ However, that motto can turn into a double-edged sword if your top money fighters start getting beaten one after another. Boxing fans lose interest in fighters once they lose, especially when they get knocked out by talented other fighters like Golovkin. The fans are fickle. They change allegiance quickly. Golovkin likely gained a massive amount of former David Lemieux fans are his 8th round knockout win over the Golden Boy promoted Lemieux last October.

“We took [David] Lemieux from him. He’s not the star he could have been,” Sanchez said to ESPN.com. “And now, Canelo is the only one left.”

What Sanchez says has a ring of truth to it. Perhaps the reason why De La Hoya won’t commit to a Canelo vs. Golovkin fight because if Canelo losses the fight, Golden Boy’s stable will be cleaned out of their top money makers. Golden Boy does have a lot of other talented fighters, but none who can bring in the kind of money that Canelo makes.

If De La Hoya is going to manage Canelo’s career carefully by only putting him in with guys he has a great chance of beating, he’ll make a lot of money but he’ll still likely get beaten every now and then if De La Hoya matches him against someone that is too competitive. That’s the downside of careful match-making. Canelo isn’t good enough to be matched consistently against sure things and still win every time.

Canelo is a good fighter, but he’s not a huge puncher and he’s not capable of putting his shots together in sustained way to get knockouts due to his stamina issues. What we saw from Gennady Golovkin last Saturday night in his 2nd round knockout win over Dominic Wade can never happen with Canelo because he doesn’t go after his opponents in the same way due to his internal control of not wanting to gas out and because of his distaste for getting hit back. There’s a little bit of Mayweather in Canelo that keeps him from going after his opponents in the same way that Golovkin does.

“In this sport, you never know,” De La Hoya said via ESPN.com about whether he’ll match Canelo against Golovkin in the fall. “Canelo is a competitor. We’re all competitors here. You just never know. So first thing’s first; he has to take care, and we have to get through Amir Khan, and then we’ll sit down and we’ll see what happens. I cannot talk to you and say that Amir Khan is an easy fight, because it’s not. There’s a rematch clause in place for a reason because Amir Khan is a real threat,” De La Hoya said.

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Khan is seen as almost a sure thing for Canelo. Khan is smaller, weaker and he has a history of having chin problems. Khan is perfect for Canelo in every way. Some boxing fans point out that Khan is bulking up for the Canelo fight and may come into the ring almost as heavy as him. There’s a big difference between fighters that are naturally middleweights and ones that bulk up by weight lifting and eating.

The fighters that are naturally middleweights have a huge edge against the pumped up ones. Additionally, Khan isn’t used to be hit by middleweights, and this is going to be a whole new experience for him. Khan had problems in his last fight in taking shots from Chris Algieri. That was a very hard fight for Khan. If Khan couldn’t even dominate Algieri, then what is he going to do against a fighter that is heavier and stronger than him in Canelo?