By Dan Ambrose: Gennady Golovkin’s trainer Abel Sanchez denies his fighter is injured, as what was recently reported by WBO middleweight champion Frank Warren. Sanchez says he doesn’t know where they came up with Golovkin being injured, but he says not injured. Sanchez would obviously know if Golovkin came out of the Daniel Jacobs fight with an injury.
The fight had so little action; it’s hard to imagine GGG getting hurt. Jacobs didn’t throw many meaningful punches. He looked like he was afraid to get hit, so he was on his bike for first 9 rounds. Jacobs won a couple late rounds, and definitely lost the 12th despite 2 judges giving him that round.
There’s still a month to go before Saul Canelo Alvarez fights Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. on May 6. If Golovkin’s promoter Tom Loeffler is waiting for the smoke to clear from the Canelo-Chavez Jr. fight next month, then he should let Warren know that’s what the plan is. It’s not a good idea to have him sitting and waiting for Golovkin to sign a contract for a match against Saunders if Loeffler isn’t sure if he wants to make the fight or not.
Golden Boy CEO Oscar De La Hoya said that if the Canelo vs. Chavez Jr. fight is a competitive one and/or if it brings in a huge amount of interest, then he would do an immediate rematch in September. It’s already appearing that the fight is going to bring in a lot of money from boxing fans. There’s a pretty good chance that we’re going to see a rematch between Canelo and Chavez Jr. in September instead of a Golovkin fight.
Warren said that the terms have been agreed with on their end for a fight against GGG. They’re now waiting on him to sign the contract to make their fight for June 10 in Kazakhstan. Golovkin looked completely uninjured in emerging from a close 12 round unanimous decision win over Daniel Jacobs on March 18 last month at Madison Square Garden in New York. If anything, Jacobs, 30, looked to be the one that could have been injured in the fight, as his face was puffy around both eyes and his cheeks from the hard punches from Golovkin. After the fight, Golovkin’s face looked unmarked. He didn’t look like he had fought at all.
Golovkin’s promoter Tom Loeffler is also trying to put together a fight between GGG and Golden Boy Promotions for a fight against Saul “Canelo” Alvarez for September. That’s a fight that Loeffler wants to make. Golden Boy CEO Oscar De La Hoya told Yahoo Sports that Golovkin would put at risk the Canelo fight in September if he fights Saunders in June. Canelo is fighting just a month earlier on May 6 against Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. De La Hoya is OK with Canelo fight in May, but not Golovkin in June.
“I have no idea what Frank is talking about,” said Sanchez to RingTV.com. ”There was no injury per se but every fighter goes into every fight with little nagging things. They never go in 100-percent. If you come out of a 12 round fight with [Danny] Jacobs, I’m sure there was soreness. But what I know of? No, you saw pictures of him in New York after the fight,” said Sanchez.
Loeffler needs to make the Saunders fight while he still can. Saunders and his promoter aren’t going to wait forever for Golovkin to sign the contract. If Triple G is not injured, as his trainer Abel Sanchez says, then he needs to make a move to get the fight done with Saunders. If Golovkin loses the Saunders fight, he could wind up with nothing to show for himself as far as important fights in 2017. Canelo might choose to fight fellow Golden Boy Promotions fighter David Lemieux in September. Golden Boy has Lemieux fighting on the undercard of Canelo’s next fight against Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. on May 6.
Lemieux has a showcase fight against Marcos Reyes. It’s a mismatch for Lemieux. Putting Lemieux in a showcase fight on the Canelo-Chavez Jr. fight is a very big hint that Golden Boy could be matching Lemieux against Canelo in the near future.
If it’s Loeffler that is saying that Golovkin is injured, then he might be listening to the warning from De La Hoya by not making the Golovkin-Saunders fight. It might also be that the Saunders fight is being used as bargaining tool by Loeffler to help make the Canelo fight. It’s not much of a bargaining tool. If all Golovkin’s promoter has to try and negotiate a better deal with Golden Boy Promotions for a fight against Canelo is the Saunders fight, then that’s not news for Triple G. Loeffler should make the fight with Saunders, and if Golden Boy really wants to make the Canelo-Golovkin fight, they’ll do it. If they have no interest in matching Canelo against Golovkin, then they might use the Golovkin-Saunders fight as an excuse not to make the fight in September.
“At the moment, they’re saying that Golovkin is injured,” said Warren to IFL TV. ”So we’re waiting to see where this is all going. But as far as I’m concerned, we agreed terms (for the Saunders-Golovkin fight)” said Warren.
Loeffler should sign for the fight against Saunders. That fight would give Golovkin the final middleweight title not already in his collection. Golovkin will be turning 35 this Saturday, April 8. It would be a great birthday present for Triple G if Loeffler could announce that GGG has signed the contract for the Saunders fight.
In some ways, Saunders is a better fighter than Canelo. Saunders moves better, has a better jab, and is taller. Saunders is capable of implementing the same game plan that we saw from Jacobs against Golovkin. That doesn’t mean Saunders will beat Golovkin, but he can possibly give him more problems than Canelo can. The 5’8” Canelo is more David Lemieux, a fighter that didn’t have the height, reach or the mobility to compete with Golovkin. The hardest part about Canelo is getting a fight against him. Golovkin has been trying for over a year to get a fight against the Golden Boy star without any luck. It’ll be interesting to see if Canelo lets another year go by before he finally faces Golovkin.
Golovkin can move up in weight to super middleweight after he fights Saunders on June 10. Having Canelo move up to 168 for the fight would be good for Golovkin. Canelo is willing to fight Chavez Jr. at a catch-weight at 164.5. He should be willing to fight Golovkin in the super middleweight division. Golovkin needs to show that he’s not just waiting for the Canelo fight.