Abel Sanchez talks GGG to DAZN, June fight, Canelo, and more

Much time was spent by Gennady Golovkin trying to figure out his next home base after HBO decided to leave the building.

He entertained suitors and deliberated in a manner which made sense with how he fights. Smart, deliberate, patient, but not overly cautious.

And DAZN is the new home. Terms were not disclosed but for six fights, the takeaway will be nine figures. Now the boxer gets to do what probably feels much more suited to him, unless he has discovered that he feels more at home doing the back-room boardroom battling and romancing and rebuffing than maybe he suspected he would.

And GGG can be indulging in some more of that, if he desires, as he secures dates and works more on his own promotional endeavor. But now, it’s time to get back into a familiar groove. Indeed, his trusty trainer/sidekick Abel Sanchez informs us, Gennady has already been at the gym for two weeks.

I chatted with the Cali-based tutor to get a sense of where GGG is mentally after this long process in finding his home base for platform in these final career chapters.

Was GGG feeling relieved, I wondered, after having to deal with more BS a nature of which he hasn’t had so much to combat?

“I think that his patience caused a frenzy of speculation and being wooed,” Sanchez said.

Regarding that “frenzy of speculation” — this new media age of fight writing deals with the business side more than the in-ring elements. You had competing journalistic entities doing what journalists do, dig, trying to be the first to break news. And at times, the info wasn’t always spot on.

Hey, it happens, you can argue, especially now, because sources are hyper aware that talking to media can blow back in their face. So you get more leaking by “sources,” often unnamed, and thus there isn’t the same degree of accountability by said sources, if they don’t have to be publicly attached to their assertions.

So for a few months, you had GGG promoter Tom Loeffler going at media who he felt didn’t do their due diligence in seeking to verify information. Sanchez, too, saw stories and tweets he knew to be false presented as truth, and he hasn’t forgotten that atmosphere, breathing in that cocoon of reportorial arguable wretchedness in these last few months, as DAZN, ESPN, and PBC looked to land the fighting pride of Kazakhstan.

“I think that prior to the announcement, there were too many journalists willing, just to be first, to sacrifice their integrity, character and scruples by writing lies, quoting imaginary ‘reliable sources.’ How many different narratives and career-damaging stories, without any consequences? Sad,” the trainer said.

“No integrity or pride! I guess that there can only be so many with champion mentality, willing to wait for their moment to be and stay there. We have to realize that we are the conservators of this great sport, our sport, that provides us a great life, doing what we love. I like to think that it’s our responsibility.”

And back to the in-ring thing.

We hear about a June return against Mr. TBD. But the redhead lurks and looms. Does the specter of Canelo consume? Do Sanchez and GGG talk about a third Canelo fight a lot? Do they hunger for that shot to get that W over the Mexican who is 1-0-1 against the almost 37-year-old Golovkin?

“G is looking to fight first part of June. Great fights are the goal. The third Canelo fight is of course something that G wants, but he is not stopping anything for it. We need to do fights that the public will appreciate,” Sanchez stated.

We wonder how much longer we’ll get to enjoy the talents of GGG. Does Sanchez think he’s built for more than the six fights on the DAZN deal, part of a mass spending spree by John Skipper and Co.?

We can’t know the future. But GGG says he’s amped to go beyond the six fights of this deal. Is Abel able to look at him, and say that is likely?

“We will concentrate on the six first, but what’s important is to have the motivation to get to camp, so big-time opponents will be key,” he explained.

Start the engines of speculation on whom GGG will fight in June. He last gloved up in Sept. 2018, with the judges deciding to award Canelo the W via majority decision. Hey, will G need a rust-shedder?

“I will have meeting with Tom Loeffler and G to discuss the opponent,” Sanchez said.

So we now switch the gears. Enough of the business talk, now time to slide laterally and engage in discussion of actual fighting. Wait, scratch that: there will be chatter about who will get that B-side slot against Gennady in June.

Hey, it’s the age we are in, sources say. We best get used to it, to a degree — but Sanchez brings up some decent points for us to ponder. His POV that we in the media are conservators of the realm is one I have to mull more myself. Then, also, his admission that a certain brand of foe is needed for GGG because as big-deal athletes and entertainers often come to know, it isn’t as easy to “get up” for lower-tier challenges.

Readers, weigh in. GGG has a new home, and will be doing his thing for our viewing pleasure shortly. Who do you see him taking on in June? And is it too soon to be thinking about Canelo-GGG III? Talk to me!