By Dan Ambrose: Frank Sanchez says he thinks Canelo Alvarez can win a heavyweight title after sparring with him. Sanchez says Canelo not only punches like a heavyweight, but he can win a world title.
A clip of the sparring between Canelo and the 29-year-old Cuban talent Sanchez was posted on Youtube earlier this year. It looked like theatrical level sparring similar to what we saw in the Mike Tyson vs. Roy Jones Jr. exhibition. It looked fake.
For those who don’t know, Sanchez trains out of the same gym with Canelo under the tutelage of Eddy Reynoso. Would Sanchez be saying the same glowing things about Canelo if he didn’t share the same gym as him?
The unbeaten contender Sanchez (19-0, 13 KOs) isn’t saying which of the champions that he believes the 5’8″ Canelo (57-1-2, 39 KOs) will defeat, but he’s likely referring to WBA secondary champion Trevor Bryan.
The 32-year-old Bryan (21-0, 15 KOs) captured the vacant WBA ‘regular’ heavyweight title eleven months ago with an 11th round knockout win over 43-year-old Bermane Stiverne.
Frank Sanchez raves about Canelo
“I’ve sparred with Canelo. I can tell you with the utmost confidence that Canelo has heavyweight power,” said Frank Sanchez to DAZN News.
“He can handle cruiserweight, and in my opinion, he could be a heavyweight champion.”
If Canelo chooses to fight one of the good heavyweight champions in Oleksandr Usyk or Tyson Fury, it won’t likely end well.
Those guys are on another level talent-wise and would likely beat Canelo even if they were fighting in the same weight class.
Unlike Canelo, they don’t have stamina problems, and they’re capable of throwing many punches. As we’ve seen in Canelo’s fights in the last two years, his punch output has dropped off to a trickle since moving to 168.
The Mexican star’s output is like an oil well that has gone dry. Canelo isn’t going to beat any of the heavyweights throwing 10 to 15 punches per round unless it’s by a controversial decision.
As far as the Canelo-Sanchez sparring goes, it looked like Sanchez was pulling his punches and not going all out on Canelo. I don’t know if you can call that actual sparring, but whatever.
Technically, you can call it sparring, but it appeared that Sanchez was fighting at quarter speed and power against the much smaller Canelo.
Frank Sanchez vs. Christian Hammer on Saturday
Sanchez (19-0, 13 KOs) will be facing replacement opponent journeyman Christian Hammer (26-8, 16 KOs) in a 10 round fight on FOX PPV on the undercard of Luis Ortiz vs. Charles Martin at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, in Hollywood, Florida.
Initially, Sanchez was scheduled to face 2008 Olympian Carlos Negron, but he came down with COVID 19 and had to pull out of the card.
Interestingly, Sanchez thinks he’ll get a title shot in 2022. He’s not saying which of the champions his promoters will hook him up with, but it’s safe to say it WON’T be against IBF/WBA/WBO champion Oleksandr Usyk or WBC champion Tyson Fury. Those guys would toy with Canelo and likely embarrass him.
Those two champions aren’t going to fight an unknown defensive-minded fighter like Sanchez because he’s not popular. Casual boxing fans have no idea who Sanchez is in the U.S, and his fighting style is not exciting.
Sanchez is like this era’s version of Chris Byrd. For fans who remember Byrd, he was a guy known for making bigger heavyweights miss and countering them with feathery shots.
Suppose Sanchez is going to be fighting for a world title in 2022. In that case, it’ll need to be against WBA secondary heavyweight champion Trevor Bryan because it’s not realistic for Fury or Usyk to give him a title shot.
“I don’t see why it can’t happen next year,” Sanchez said on him getting a heavyweight title shot in 2022.
“I know that I have made that leap, that quality leap into the elite level of heavyweight fighters. I’m ready to face absolutely anybody. And I think that the world title shot should be able to come sometime during 2022.”
Sanchez has a win over Efe Ajagba, but he’s going a little overboard saying he’s made the leap to elite level.
For Sanchez to make that kind of jump, he needs to beat quality opposition, and unfortunately, beating Ajagba doesn’t count.