Sanchez: Canelo’s not showing the courage he spoke of after Khan fight

By Boxing News - 08/17/2016 - Comments

Image: Sanchez: Canelo’s not showing the courage he spoke of after Khan fight

By Dan Ambrose: Saul “Canelo” Alvarez spoke boldly after his win over Amir Khan last May, saying that he would fight Gennady “GGG” Golovkin inside the ring that night. Golovkin’s trainer Abel Sanchez liked hearing Canelo speak so boldly because he felt that there was a good chance that he would fight Golovkin. However, Canelo vacated his WBC title shortly after that rather than fight Golovkin, who was his mandatory challenger at the time.

Sanchez says that’s unforgivable that Canelo would vacate his WBC belt without even putting up a fight. Sanchez says that failing is okay as long as you fight bravely. But for a fighter like Canelo to just give up his WBC title without even trying to fight Golovkin, he thinks that’s really low.

“He’s not showing us the [expletive] that he spoke of after the Khan fight,” said Sanchez to fighthub.com about Canelo. “He talked so much trash. He needs to back it up. They would forgive him if he fought someone and loses but puts up a valiant fight because that’s what he was all about. You’re supposed to fail sometime. You’re supposed to fail and come back stronger. For him to completely give it up without a fight, it’s unforgivable,” said Sanchez.

There’s not much you can do with getting Canelo inside the ring, because his management appear to want to wait before matching him against Golovkin. Just how long they plan on waiting is unknown. Golden Boy said they wanted to wait until next year, but it might be longer than that. You can tell from seeing Sanchez’s interview that he’s frustrated.
Here’s what Canelo said to HBO’s Max Kellerman after his win over welterweight Amir Khan on May 7 of this year:

Canelo: “I invited him into the ring. Like we say in Mexico, we don’t [expletive] around. I don’t fear anyone. We don’t come to play in this sport. I don’t fear no one in this sport.”

Kellerman: “Does this mean you’ll fight Triple G later this year?”

Canelo: “Like I said before, I’ll put the gloves on again.”

Golovkin said on Tuesday that he doesn’t think Canelo will ever fight him.

”He knows he’s never going to fight with me. It’s not respect,” said Golovkin.

By the time that Canelo does choose to give the fight to Golovkin, it’s unclear whether he’ll come running or not. Canelo and his promoters at Golden Boy are definitely letting Golovkin know who the boss is by saying when the fight will take place. Obviously, when Golden Boy and Canelo do tell Golovkin they’re ready for the fight, it’s going to be at the venue of their choosing. This means that Golovkin will need to agree to fighting in Texas if Golden Boy and Canelo tells him that’s where the fight will take place.

Golovkin will be fighting in front of a huge pro-Canelo audience in Texas just as Austin Trout did in their fight in 2013. That was the fight with the lopsided scores in favor of Canelo in a fight that looked like a draw if not a win for Trout. Luckily for Golovkin, he doesn’t let the judge shave anything to do with the scoring of his fights, so it won’t matter if Canelo and Golden Boy insists on the fight against Golovkin taking place in Texas.

What might matter is if Golden Boy CEO Oscar De La Hoya offers Golovkin a 10 percent split of the revenue with Canelo getting 90 percent. De La Hoya already said that the negotiations between Canelo and Golovkin would start off at 90-10 if it were up to him.

Canelo has a fight against WBO junior middleweight champion Liam Smith on September 17. If Canelo wins that fight, he plans on fighting in December to finish off the ring and then coming back in May of 2017 on the Mexican holiday Cinco de Mayo. Golovkin would be in September of 2017 on the Mexican Independence Day holiday if the fight takes place.

Golovkin needs to win his fight against Kell Brook on September 10 at the O2 Arena in London, England. The audience is expected to be 20,000, which is a lot smaller than the huge crowd that will turning up to see Canelo vs. Smith at the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. However, the Golovkin vs. Brook fight is expected to bring in a lot of PPV buys from Sky Box Office in the UK. It’s a fight that will make a lot of money.