Sanchez says Golovkin could take Dec. tune-up fight

By Boxing News - 09/27/2017 - Comments

Image: Sanchez says Golovkin could take Dec. tune-up fight

By Dan Ambrose: Gennady “GGG” Golovkin (37-0-1, 33 KOs) might take a tune-up fight in December before facing Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (49-1-1, 2 KOs) in a rematch in May of 2018, says trainer Abel Sanchez. He says he heard Golovkin’s promoter Tom Loeffler and Golden Boy Promotions president Eric Gomez talking about both fighters potentially taking a tune-up fight in December before fighting in May.

A tune-up helps Golovkin more than Canelo, considering it’s a waste of time for him to sit idle for 8 months until their rematch in 2018. Canelo, 27, has another 10 years left in his career, so he can afford to take 8 months off between fights.

“I think there’s a possibility before the end of the year,” said Sanchez to BMTM Sports Channel about Golovkin taking a fight in December.“Also, Cotto mentioned that he’d like to fight the winner. I read of a conversation between Tom [Loeffler] and Eric [Gomez of Golden Boy Promotions], if the fight was going to happen in May, then either guy could take a tune-up fight,” said Sanchez.

A tune-up fight for Triple G sounds like a great idea, since he can stay busy and get in good fight on HBO Boxing against someone like Miguel Cotto. The Puerto Rican fighter plans on fighting on December 2 on HBO, and he has the option of fighting the Canelo, Golovkin or David Lemieux. Since Canelo has already taken himself out of the equation for a fight with Cotto by saying he’s not going to fight for the rest of this year, then it leaves Golovkin as the guy that can get the fight against the Puerto Rican star.

It’s a great fight for Golovkin against Cotto. Obviously it wouldn’t give him the same kind of money that he’d get by fighting Canelo, but what can you do when the redheaded star doesn’t want to fight Triple G until 2018. You can’t expect Golovkin to put his life on hold because Canelo wants to take it easy for almost an entire year resting after his controversial 12 round draw.

”I think the fight has to be made whether it’s May or December,” said Sanchez in talking about the Canelo-GGG rematch. ”What do you say? You don’t want the fight. This fight is good for the sport of boxing. Sometimes you have to bite the bullet, and one side gives in this way and the other side gives in that way and the fight that needs to be made is made,” said Sanchez.

When Sanchez talks about biting the bullet, he’s referring to Golovkin having to agree to one of the dates that Canelo wants the fight to take place. Golovkin can’t refuse fighting on one of Canelo’s chosen dates for the rematch without losing the fight entirely. Golovkin will have to fight Canelo in May if that’s what date he wants the fight, and that’s the way it’s looking right now.

I see GGG giving in with the date, but I don’t see the part where Canelo has to give in for the negotiations to work. If it means that Golovkin can get more money in terms of a larger purse split for him than in the previous fight, then it makes sense for him to fight on a Canelo date. You can’t say it’s a good deal for GGG if he gets the same deal as last time financially and he still has to fight on Canelo’s Mexican holiday in front of his fans in Las Vegas.

“Canelo said he was going to knockout Golovkin and stand in front of him,” said Sanchez to BMTM Sports Channel. “It turned out he didn’t. He moved a heck of a lot more than he ever done. The perfect consequence of that was when he was trying to get interviewed by Max Kellerman, the majority of the fans were booing. So, they were booing him, because he was acting like he thought he won the fight. The audience thinks he ran in the fight. He was supposed to fight according to what he said. The Mexican fans are going to hold him to his word, and he didn’t do what he said,” Sanchez said.

The reason the boxing fans were booing Canelo wasn’t because he ran from Golovkin. It was due to Canelo talking like he had won the fight. Canelo seemed to be under the illusion that he won for some reason. The booing from the boxing fans at the T-Mobile was there way of letting Canelo know that he’d come up short, and he hadn’t performed well enough to deserve a draw, much less a win. Canelo was acting like he was out of touch with reality after the fight. It’s good that the fans started cluing Canelo in by booing him, because it would have been wrong for the guy to leave the area without knowing how poorly he had done in the fight.

People say he didn’t go to the body enough,” said Sanchez about Triple G. ”He went to the body in the 4th or 5th round. Canelo turned his back as he was rolling, and the shot him in the back. Referee Kenny Bayless tells him not to do it again. So that was a hard warning. So that was the hard warning. We’d already had a warning in the dressing room. If he goes to the body again and Canelo turns and he takes a point away, now we’re looking at a different fight,” said Sanchez.

Golovkin wasn’t throwing to Canelo’s body even before he was earned by Bayless. Golovkin was head-hunting the entire fight. Golovkin didn’t stop throwing body shots because of a hard warning from Bayless. Golovkin never got started. I’m surprised that Sanchez would even bother pretending by saying that Golovkin stopped throwing body punches because of a warning. Golovkin wasn’t willing to take risks of being countered by Canelo. Golovkin probably would have handled Canelo’s shots counter shots fine, but it would have enabled him to win rounds if he couldn’t knock him out. It was better for Golovkin to jab.

“I would hope there would be a better scrutiny of the judges,” said Sanchez about the rematch between Canelo and GGG.

It’s hard to predict how judges will score a fight. Sanchez didn’t have any issues with the judge Don Trella, who scored the fight a draw with his 114-114 score for the Canelo-Golovkin. That score came out of nowhere. I’m sure Sanchez will have be more aware of what kind of score Trella could give in the future if he doesn’t speak up the next time he’s a judge for one of his fighters. I can’t see Trella or Adelaide Byrd working any of Golovkin’s for the rest of his career without Sanchez and Tom Loeffler taking issue with them officiating.

Super featherweight champion Leo Santa Cruz says he thinks Golovkin beat Canelo. He feels that did enough to win the fight by 2 rounds.

”I think Triple G won,” said Leo Santa Cruz to Fighthype in saying GGG beat Canelo. ”I thought he won, maybe by a round or so. The fight was pretty close. If they want to give it to Triple G, I think it would be fair. I think 7 rounds to Triple G, and 5 rounds to Canelo. There were some rounds that were really close that you don’t know what to do give it to. I’m happy with a draw, but for me, I think Triple G won. Triple G hit him with some hard shots, but he didn’t hurt him. Triple G hit him with some good shots, but Canelo took them like nothing. I was surprised that he took the punches,” said Santa Cruz.

The main reason Canelo was able to take Golovkin’s power shots is because he appeared to take the steam off of his punches so he could land. Canelo was using so much head movement to avoid GGG’s shots, it made it difficult for him to land without him taking power off his punches.

YouTube video