Abel Sanchez, the former trainer of Gennadiy Golovkin, 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 seen a change in Golovkin’s approach that has only made things more difficult for him between the ropes. Take a look at some excerpts of what Sánchez had to say below.
Sánchez on Golovkin’s performance against Canelo
“What does that old saying say? One guy didn’t want to fight and the other was happy about it. I felt like they fought 24 rounds and knew each other so well that it was kind of a pity sparring session. None of them really wanted to take over.
“I don’t know Golovkin’s reason. Golovkin is the one who, for me, had the most to prove and the most to gain from being a winner. Canelo is at the point now where he can have a loss like he had against Bivol and it won’t affect him as much, financially, that is. But I felt that 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 to beat Canelo I think you have to do what Bivol ultimately did in the first fight of his career where he was really aggressive. That’s what you have to do with Canelo. You have to act to react, you can’t wait to react with Canelo.
“We are not psychologists but we are people who have seen many fights. We can tell when a guy wants to win or maybe just survive so he doesn’t lose too much 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 that the declining attitude and aggressiveness that he had when he was with me in the fights, he’s trying to be more of a boxer. I do not 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 very important.”
On whether this could just be a result of Golovkin being 40 years old.
“No. I don’t think so. I think Hopkins has shown that … I think if you continue the training regimen in a way that you’ve been training to not allow too much time in between and continue with your regimen, I think your strength will remain. It seems like his punches aren’t as effective as they used to be. I remember in a lot of fights, as soon as he landed a significant punch, you saw the change in the opponent’s eyes or the opponent’s mannerisms… three or four (fights), I haven’t seen that in the opponent’s eyes.”
