Canelo vacating his WBO 154lb title, says Golovkin’s trainer

By Boxing News - 11/08/2016 - Comments

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By Dan Ambrose: Trainer Abel Sanchez believes that the cooler minds are beginning to prevail for a potential fight between middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin and Mexican star Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, and he sees the fight taking place between the two stars in September next year as planned.

Sanchez says that he’s hearing that Canelo is vacating his WBO junior middleweight title now and ready to move up to 160. It’s not surprising that Canelo is vacating his WBO 154lb division. It’s not that surprising that Canelo is going to give up his WBO title soon, because if he keeps the belt, then he’ll need to fight his #1 WBO contender Demetrius Andrade. I don’t think the average boxing fan is going to care too much about news of Canelo vacating his WBO 154lb title though. The fans want to see Canelo fight Golovkin at middleweight, so it won’t matter if he vacates his 154lb title. There’s no one in that weight class for him to fight other than Miguel Cotto, and he already beat him.

That would be a really tough fight for Canelo, because Andrade is a lot taller than him at 6’1,” and he has the power, size and boxing skills to out-box him in the same way that Floyd Mayweather Jr. did in his loss to him in 2013. I would be very surprised if Canelo did hold onto his WBO title, because it would mean that he would need to fight Andrade. That would be a real difficult match-up for him.

Canelo will probably hold onto his WBO 154lb title long enough for him to be made the #1 WBO mandatory challenger at 160. Canelo needs to be the WBO champion at 154 if he wants to be installed as the #1 contender for WBO middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders. The WBO reportedly has ordered Saunders to fight back to back mandatory challengers. That means the only way Canelo can get a crack at fighting Saunders in 2017 is if he’s made the No.1 mandatory by the WBO. He can’t do that unless he’s still the WBO 154lb champion unless the WBO wants to just insert him at the top spot in their rankings out of the blue without him having the credentials for that ranking.

Sanchez also sees the two of them facing each other another one or two times before they’re finished. That’s pretty amazing when you think about it, because almost two years have gone by without the fight having been made. For Golovkin and Canelo to wind up facing each other two to three times, it would require that we don’t see any more games being played where Canelo is in need of an interim fight before facing Golovkin. We’d also need to stop hearing about how Canelo isn’t ready to fight at middleweight yet because he’s not heavy enough, despite some boxing fans that he’s at least the same weight as Golovkin if not heavier than him by possibly 10 pounds or more.

Sanchez seems to have changed his tune when it comes to talking about Canelo and his promoters at Golden Boy Promotions. Sanchez is no longer talking tough about them like he was before/ He seems to have toned down his harsh rhetoric toward Canelo and his team. It makes you wonder whether Golovkin’s promoter Tom Loeffler has given Sanchez marching orders to talk nicely about Canelo and Golden Boy in order to keep them from digging in their heels to stall out the fight rather than using their better judgement to see it as old fashioned trash talk to get the boxing public interested in the fight.

If Golden Boy and Canelo can’t understand that it’s in their best interest to fight Golovkin, then it suggests that Canelo’s career will be stunted, and he’ll never become as popular as he come be. For Canelo to become a superstar, he’s going to need to be willing to take risks with his career by fighting talented guys that are his own size.

Thus far, Canelo has shown that he’s willing to take risks in fighting smaller guys like Floyd Mayweather Jr., Miguel Cotto and Amir Khan. But those guys were a lot shorter and lighter than him. It’s a different story with Canelo facing a middleweight like Golovkin, who he’d be shorter than, and wouldn’t have much of a weight advantage over. At best, Canelo might outweigh Golovkin by 10 to 15 pounds. Canelo has looked much heavier than many of the guys he’s fought, and he would have to find another way of beating Golovkin rather than depending on a weight advantage.

Sanchez said this to IFL TV about a fight between Canelo and Golovkin:

“From what I understand, he [Canelo] vacated the [WBO] junior middleweight title,” said Sanchez. “From what I understand, he’s moving up to middleweight. I think he said he’s going to fight at 160 now. Oscar [De La Hoya] has mentioned that. I think he’s going to vacate the title. I think he’s a middleweight. A lot of other people believe that he’s a middleweight. He was a middleweight champion. I would hope that all the talk comes to fruition in September 2017, and we all get treated. I am going to have the best seat in the house. I’m going to be right at ringside. We’ll be treated to a great fight. I think it’s the type of fight where they can do it twice or three times, because they’re both great fighters. Canelo is a warrior. I think Canelo will fight whoever they put in front of him. The smarter minds are prevailing right now for whatever reason if you want to think they’re smarter. But Canelo is willing to fight Golovkin; I’m sure at any time. It’s just that they’re trying to make it perfect for him. You have to commend Oscar for looking out for his fighter’s best interest. As far as the power, I’ve never seen Golovkin hit anyone 100% yet. I’m telling you, he’s unbelievably strong, and he hits unbelievably hard. Unfortunately for him, he hasn’t had to do that. Unfortunately for us, we haven’t seen it, but he does hit extremely hard. In the gym, he’s not the abusive type to his sparring partners or anyone that’s with him. But he’ll make you pay and make you understand why he made you pay,” said Sanchez.

Besides the idea of Canelo and Golovkin fighting each other three times in a trilogy fight, it’s interesting that Sanchez is talking so nicely about Golovkin.