By Juan Flores: Abel Sanchez is hoping Saul Canelo Alvarez (49-1-2, 34 KOs) will be coming to fight in his rematch with IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady ‘GGG’ Golovkin (38-0-1, 34 KOs) on HBO pay-per-view at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. Sanchez says Canelo has been talking a lot of trash recently about Golovkin, and he says he’s going to have to back it up when he gets inside the ring with him in their second fight.
If Canelo elects to stay on the move and box GGG for 12 rounds on September 15, he’s going to have to explain to the fans afterwards why he didn’t do what he said he was going to do, Sanchez said.
“I’m glad that it’s signed and that we’re going to get a chance to resolve the controversy surrounding the first fight,” Abel Sanchez said to The Ring. “As it was in the beginning, Canelo was talking a lot of smack about how he’s going to knockout Golovkin. I hope he tries and the fans can be treated to a great fight,” Sanchez said.
Sanchez isn’t saying that it was Golovkin who chose to box Canelo instead of going to war with him last time. Canelo was inviting Golovkin in to go to war with him against the ropes, but Golovkin didn’t want any part of fighting him at close range. Golovkin stayed on the outside and looked cautious and unsure of himself. Canelo got the better of Golovkin when the two of them did trade shots at close range. Canelo’s background in Mexico as an inside fighter gave him a big advantage over Golovkin when the two went to war. Canelo landed some big uppercuts that had Golovkin looking hurt in the later rounds.
“He’s painting himself into a corner,” Sanchez said about Canelo. “He’s putting himself in a position where you going are going to ask him later why he didn’t do what he promised to do. If he doesn’t, he’s going to have questions to answer. My fighter [Gennady] fights in a way…The great Julio Cesar Chavez fought fights in one manner trying to knock your head off. That’s the way my fighter fights. If Canelo comes to fight, we’re going to have a war. Let’s see who can take it the best. Let’s see who has more resources to eke out a win, because if they go at each other, it’s a very close fight,” Sanchez said.
Sanchez is wrong in bringing the great Chavez as a fighter to compare Golovkin to. The Kazakhstan fighter is nothing like Chavez. If GGG could fight like Chavez, he would have beaten Canelo last September instead of being held to a 12 round draw. Chavez would have never fought Canelo on the outside the way that Golovkin did. Chavez would have stayed on top of Canelo and wore him down with his constant body and head shots on the inside. Golovkin wasn’t willing to do what Chavez would have done. Golovkin is an Eastern European fighter with a good medium to long range game, but who isn’t nearly as skilled when he tries to fight in close. Golovkin has showed in the past that he can beat fighters like Willie Monroe Jr. and Kell Brook on the inside, but he can’t beat Canelo fighting like that. In the rematch, Golovkin should stick with his normal fighting style by staying on the outside, using his power jab and single right hands. That’s the only style of fighting that gives him any chance of beating Canelo. Golovkin is too slow of hand to fight Canelo on the inside. It’s not going to end well for Golovkin if he decides that he’s going to stay on top of Canelo for 12 rounds on the inside. Golovkin will beaten up, embarrassed and knocked out just like Liam Smith and James Kirkland did when they fought Canelo.
”That was kind of strange. He doesn’t want to be in front of us at any press conferences,”
Sanchez said about Canelo. ”I don’t know why. That’s how you promote a fight. They were very subdued that day,” Sanchez said about Team Canelo at the recent Facebook news conference last week. ”Oscar [De La Hoya] did most of the talking. They didn’t seem to want to answer the questions in a manner that is worthy of the fight. This is a big fight for all of us. That’s the biggest fight in boxing, and the biggest fight of the year, in order to resolve those differences from the first one. It has that to live to,” Sanchez said.
You can’t blame Canelo, 27, for not wanting to have Golovkin in his face at the news conferences. If Canelo didn’t insolate him from GGG during the press conferences, he might have to hear a lot of negative comments from him that he doesn’t need to hear. Canelo is better off keeping his mind on his training and game plan than he is about getting caught in a back and forth trash talking game with Golovkin and his team. If Canelo had agreed to a Face Off with Golovkin with Max Kellerman on HBO, it’s likely that there would be questions that he would have to answer about his two positive tests for clenbuterol. Even if Canelo told his truth about having eaten contaminated food, it would make him look bad in the eyes of a lot of casual boxing fans, who would be hearing for the first time that he had tested positive for clenbuterol. A lot of the casual fans don’t follow boxing closely enough to know about what’s going on at all times. That’s why it’s best that Canelo not take part in the Face Off with GGG on Kellerman’s special on HBO. There’s nothing for Canelo to gain being on that special.
”I think they’re going to have a lot of pressure on them, the judges,” Sanchez said.
The judges aren’t feeling pressure ahead of the Canelo vs. Golovkin II fight. The judges will do a professional job of scoring the fight to the best of their ability. Many of the fans saw the first Canelo-GGG fight differently. Some thought Canelo won a lopsided 12 round decision due to the way the was getting the better of Golovkin when they were in the center of the ring, while other fans thought GGG had done enough to deserve the win. A lot of fans agreed with the final decision of the fight with it being scored a draw. It was impossible to really pick out a winner because both fighters did well at different times in the fight. Golovkin ruined his chances of winning by not fighting hard in the first three rounds and giving those rounds to Canelo. By the time Golovkin did start to fight hard in round 4, he was already three rounds in the hole. That’s not Canelo’s fault that Golovkin was foolish enough to give away the first quarter of the fight. He did that on his own. A smart fighter like Julio Cesar Chavez would have never been lazy enough to give away the first three rounds and expect that he was going to be able to rally to win.
”They’re going to be treated to Gennady just like he’s always been,” Sanchez said. ”He’s going to go after their guy.”
