Sanchez wants Golovkin to fight in February

By Boxing News - 10/20/2015 - Comments

Boxing: Golovkin vs LemieuxBy Dan Ambrose: IBF/IBO/WBA middleweight champion Gennady “Triple G” Golovkin’s trainer Abel Sanchez says he hopes that Golovkin can be back inside the ring in the next three months to fight in February against either the winner of the November 21st fight between WBC middleweight champion Miguel Cotto and Saul “Canelo” Alvarez or IBF mandatory challenge Tureano Johnson.

Sanchez doesn’t know if the Cotto-Canelo winner will be ready to fight Golovkin that soon after their November fight, or if the winner will agree to fight him at all period. If not, then Sanchez wants Golovkin back in the ring fighting Tureano.

“I would love for him [Golovkin] to fight in February,” Sanchez said to Fighthub. “If it’s not against one of those two guys [Cotto and Canelo], then somebody else. Hopefully that’s allowable by the WBC. I thought that was a great fight [Tureano Johnson vs. Eamonn O’Kane]. He’s [Tureano] ranked really high. I’d love to fight him. If they could put it together, then this could be our next fight,” Sanchez said.

Whether Golovkin fights in February or not will be determined by his promoter Tom Loeffler. If they feel that there’s a chance to fight the Cotto-Canelo winner in early 2016, then they’ll probably sit and wait for that fight to happen. You’ve got to expect the negotiations to take a long, long time though, because it’s not easy trying to negotiate a fight against Canelo and Cotto. But hopefully the negotiations don’t drag out for six months or more because Golovkin needs to be fighting rather than sitting around waiting for half a year before he fights.

If the Cotto vs. Canelo winner decides they want nothing to do with Golovkin, then a fight against Tureano Johnson would be a good fight. Tureano clearly has the most aggressive style of the top five contenders in the division, and he’s got the size and punching power to make it difficult for Golovkin. Tureano wouldn’t be afraid to take the fight to Golovkin and force him to exchange with him. David Lemieux fought like he was afraid of Golovkin the entire fight, and this is why Golovkin was able to keep the action on the outside where he jabbed Lemieux constantly.

“He [Golovkin] could have pressed some more when he had him [Lemieux] hurt to the body in the 3rd or 4th rounds and got him out of there quicker,” Sanchez said. “Again, it’s the issue that he wants to practice some things and please the fans, and it took him a little longer to find that spot in the 5th, 6th and 7th. Then he knew it was time. I’ll give him a nine in the overall fight. David fought a better fight than a lot of people expected. He tried hard. I’m sure he trained real hard, and he showed me some things that I didn’t see in the [Hassan] N’Dam fight. In the N’Dam fight, I thought he was sloppy. In this fight, he tried and he stayed composed. I said before this fight that Curtis [Stevens] was the tougher fight. Curtis was a better fighter [than Lemieux], and the better puncher,” Sanchez said.

Stevens has a controversial 10th round stoppage win over Tureano from April of 2014. That was a fight where Stevens was way behind in the fight in the 10th round, and was able to stun Tureano with a shot. It looked like Tureano was fine though and still fighting back when the referee stopped the contest. By stopping it prematurely, the referee gave Stevens a big break because it looked like Tureano was going to make it out of the round and win the fight. Tureano has won all five of his fights since his controversial loss.



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