Sanchez: Preparing Golovkin for Canelo will be easier than for Jacobs fight

By Boxing News - 05/09/2017 - Comments

Image: Sanchez: Preparing Golovkin for Canelo will be easier than for Jacobs fight

By Dan Ambrose: Trainer Abel Sanchez says his task in preparing Gennady Golovkin for a fight against Saul Canelo Alvarez on September 16 will be easier than it was to get ready for Daniel Jacobs last March. Sanchez notes that Canelo is smaller than Jacobs, which means he can bring in smaller sparring partners to spar with Golovkin (37-0, 33 KOs).

That ultimately means a lot less wear and tear for GGG from the sparring sessions. Golovkin had some sparring partners to get ready for Jacobs. One of them was David Benavidez, who you can argue is a better puncher than Jacobs with either hand. That must have tough on Golovkin to spar with the 22-year-old Benavidez because of his heavy hands.

Golovkin will be starting his training camp in mid-July to get ready for the Canelo fight. Golovkin isn’t too worried about getting ready for the fight. He’s looking forward to it. This is a fight that Golovkin has wanted for the last 2 years, but he’s been made to wait by Canelo’s promoters at Golden Boy Promotions. It was only until recently after Golovkin’s back to back tough fights against Kell Brook and Daniel Jacobs that Golden Boy finally let the Canelo-Golovkin fight happen.

Is that because they think Golovkin is slipping and beatable now? Only they know for sure they they decided to let Canelo fight him. If they believe Canelo, they’re going to have to take the training wheels off of him and let him start fighting the best each time instead of just talking about it. Canelo’s mismatch against Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. last Saturday night was a clear sign that he’s not fighting the best. Canelo is still fighting lesser opposition from the past era of boxing. Chavez Jr. clearly belongs to an era gone by.

“Canelo can crack,” Sanchez said to Yahoo Sports. “He has fast hands. He’s more relaxed in the ring than he was a year ago. He looks better mentally, too. With Jacobs, we had to bring bigger guys into the gym. There was more wear and tear. Canelo is smaller. There won’t be as much.”

Sanchez isn’t saying that Canelo can’t fight or he’s an easy mark. But by saying that Canelo is smaller fighter, it would seem that Sanchez believes this will be an easier fight for Golovkin, because he won’t have to deal with the height, reach and the weight of Jacobs. Golovkin got the better of Jacobs when the two were on the outside. The only thing that made Jacobs harder to deal with was his movement. He was always moving, and that made it tough on Golovkin because he had to follow him around the ring all the time. There was a lot of dead time in the fight where Jacobs stalling the rounds out with his movement.

It didn’t help win rounds, but it ultimately saved him from being knocked out. Dmitri Pirog was able to knockout Jacobs by going right after him and committing to his punches with everything he had. Golovkin wasn’t doing that. He was thinking too much, and not loading up with everything he had the way Pirog did. If Golovkin had fought like Pirog, Jacobs wouldn’t have lasted more than 3 rounds, because he was getting hurt each time Golovkin loaded up in that fight. Jacobs is a good fighter, but he has a really bad chin. Golovkin did Jacobs a big favor by not fighting in a confidence and decisive manner.

Golden Boy isn’t coming out and saying that they believe that Golovkin has lost a few steps, and isn’t the monster that he was a few years ago, but it’s likely that’s the reason they’re letting Canelo take the fight with him. Sanchez says they can think what they want, but he knows what Golovkin is capable of doing because he sees him in the gym and he doesn’t feels he’s lost anything in his boxing skills.

“Let them think that,” Sanchez said. “Everyone has an opinion. I imagine that fight gives [Golden Boy] confidence. Have it. I know what I have in the gym. And it’s not what they just faced [Chavez] in the ring.”

Sanchez was being kind by only bringing up Chavez Jr. as the type of fighters that Canelo is facing nowadays. Sanchez didn’t mention past Canelo opponents Liam Smith, Amir Khan, James Kirkland, Alfredo Angulo and Miguel Cotto. They say Canelo has improved as a fighter, but how can they know if he has based on the opposition he’s been facing since 2014.

Canelo has gone through 3 years of his career fighting those guys. Cotto is a decent fighter, but he’s not on the same level as some of the top fighters at 154 and 160. The rest of the guys that Canelo has fought are nothing like Golovkin in talent. Erislandy Lara is a good fighter, but he fought scared against Canelo and didn’t want to mix it up. The way Lara fought against Canelo is nothing like the way Golovkin will.

Canelo is smaller than David Lemieux, who Golovkin dominated from the outside. We saw how much smaller Canelo was compared to Golovkin when the two were standing next to each other at the post=fight press conference last Saturday night and when they were inside the ring. Canelo is giving up a lot of height and even size. I know Golovkin hasn’t started training yet, but he looked bigger than Canelo in terms of his frame.

Golovkin looked like he was one division above Canelo in size. Perhaps Golden Boy Promotions CEO Oscar De La Hoya was right in saying for the last 2 years that Canelo isn’t a real middleweight. I don’t think he is. I think Canelo is a junior middleweight. He just looks like a middleweight sometimes because he’s really and stocky. But if he would disclose his weight, he’s likely no heavier than some of the top 154b fighters like Jermell Charlo, Lara, Andrade and Julian “J-Rock” Williams. If Canelo is serious about wanting to fight just the best fighters in the middleweight division from this point on, I think he’ll suffer a string of losses, which will result in him and Golden Boy making a decision to move back down to 154 where he’s more suited.