Abel Sanchez, the former trainer of Gennadiy Golovkin, just recently took some time to chat with Lance Pugmire about GGG’s most recent outing against Canelo Alvarez. Golovkin would end up losing a unanimous decision in that fight, and Sanchez believes we’ve see a change in approach from Golovkin that has only made things more difficult for him in between the ropes. Check out some excerpts of what Sanchez had to say below.
Sanchez on Golovkin’s performance against Canelo
“What’s that old say, one guy didn’t want to fight and the other guy was glad of it. I just felt like they fought 24 rounds and they just knew each other so well that it was kind of a pity-pat sparring session. Neither one of them really wanted to take charge.
“I don’t know the reason for Golovkin. Golovkin is the one, to me, who had more to prove and more to gain by being a winner. Canelo’s at the point now where he can have a loss like he did against Bivol and it’s not going to affect him that much — financially, that is. But I just felt Gennadiy, for some reason, didn’t have the strength to do what he did in the first two fights.
“He didn’t have the authority in the ring, and in order to beat Canelo I think you have to do what Bivol finally did for the first fight of his career where he was actually aggressive. That’s what you have to do with Canelo. You have to act to react, you can’t just wait to react with Canelo.
“We’re not psychologists but we are people that have seen a lot of fights. We can tell when a guy wants to win or maybe just survive to not lose too bad and maybe win. It seemed that way in the first eight or nine rounds with Gennadiy. But I will say this, this is the first fight I’ve seen since we’re not working together — I’ve seen clips of the other (fights) — and it seems to me the diminishing attitude and aggressiveness that he had when he was with me in the fights, he’s trying to be more of a boxer. I don’t understand why.
“The judges look at him like maybe he’s not winning because he’s not the aggressor...in his style, his presence is so important.”
On if this could just be a result of Golovkin being 40 years old
“No. I don’t think so. I think Hopkins has proven that...I think if you continue the regimen of training in a way that you have been training to not allow too much time in between and you continue your regimen, I think that your strength will maintain. It seems like his punches are not as effective as they used to be. I remember in many a fights, as soon as he landed a significant punch you saw the change in the opponent’s eyes or opponent’s mannerisms...In the last three or four (fights), I haven’t seen that in the opponent’s eyes.”
Loading comments...