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Abel Sanchez Says GGG v Canelo Could Easily Be A Castillo/Corrales Type War

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Abel Sanchez Says GGG v Canelo Could Easily Be A Castillo/Corrales Type War

Renowned trainer Abel Sanchez, who brought Terry Norris and now Gennady Golovkin to prominence, checked in with the TALKBOX podcast on Tuesday, and spoke about the impending mega fight, which unfolds on Sept 16 and will show who is THE MAN at 160.

Sanchez said that there is enough room on the pool for both that Floyd Mayweather tango with UFCer Conor McGregor, but he does see their scrap as being apples and oranges as compared to #GGGCanelo.

“I didn’t see the fight, but from Floyd being who he is, if it went as long as it went, I tend to think that Floyd carried Conor, because Floyd is a heck of a lot better than that to take ten rounds against a guy who’s never had a fight, a boxing fight..but they did it for their reasons, I hope it was very successful for them. Now we go on to the boxing match between two of the best fighters in boxing, obviously two of the best fighters in the middleweight division. I think now we’re going to see what boxing, BOXING, is really all about, not a spectacle.”

GGG was “very frustrated” when some folks you would have figured might have wanted to step to the line against him didn’t pick up the pen. Sanchez relayed to us. Thus, he is that much more fired up for this scrap, is Golovkin. No, he wasn’t exactly bored in some recent fights…but to be sure, all juices are flowing for this one.

We touched on aging…has GGG slipped?

“Were those things said when Andre Ward was dropped by Kovalev? No,” said Sanchez. Yes, people put GGG on a pedestal and because of that, when he didn’t look A plus in his last fight, did people assume it was because of aging? Some did assume that, the trainer agreed. What about the possibility, which he’s never discussed with the Kazahk battler, that he helped his case for getting the Canelo fight by not looking A plus grade in his last fight, against Danny Jacobs? To reiterate, Sanchez has pondered this case, but again, he didn’t point blank ask GGG if he deliberately took the pedal off the metal. “We will find out on the sixteenth if this man is slipping. But to this point, he’s still undefeated, still has never been hurt, still has never been dominated, still has never been in a fight where you say, ‘You know what, that guy was much better than Golovkin.’ Golovkin is not Superman, obviously, and he’s gonna get old. But I think until somebody does that to him, and it could be Canelo, I dont know, we’ll see Sept 16th..but if he dominates Canelo, what are we gonna say about him then? Who is he gonna fight, Anthony Joshua?”

Good point; if he dominates Canelo, folks will say Canelo was overhyped…

“But we’re talking about it, that’s the point, that means we’re doing something, even if it’s wrong,” said Sanchez, making clear that it's great to be relevant, even if all the voices aren't a choir of devotees.

I perseverated, has Sanchez not seen slippage in GGG? “We’ve had a great training camp,” he said, and spoke of sparring partners, like J Roc, who have asked Sanchez ‘what round are you asking GGG to KO Canelo?'  Some spar mates have admitted they are wishing for sparring sessions to go real fast. That was his answer to the “slippage” question…

Sanchez told us that he could see BOTH Canelo and GGG hitting the deck. “Canelo is a heckuva fighter,” he said. Fast combos, sharp punches, Canelo is the real deal. “How a guy gets up, I think determines the greatness. Leonard went down, all the greats went down,” but the giants get up, and kick tail. He said Sept 16 could maybe be a “Castillo-Corrales” type of fight, which means both men get hurt and need to collect themselves.

And he went back to the well, and summoned that reference to the 2005 lightweight classic. “I think this is the first time in a long, long time fans are anticipating fireworks,” he told us. “The type of style they have the fans are anticipating a Castillo/Corrales type fight. It may not be that dramatic but it will be the kind of fight people go away thinking of the second one.”

There’s more in the pod, including a pretty damn funny story from Abel which he maintains proves that GGG hasn’t lost even a quarter step athletically.

Founder/editor Michael Woods got addicted to boxing in 1990, when Buster Douglas shocked the world with his demolition of the then-impregnable Mike Tyson. The Brooklyn-based journalist has covered the sport since for ESPN The Magazine, ESPN.com, Bad Left Hook and RING. His journalism career started with NY Newsday in 1999. Michael Woods is also an accomplished blow by blow and color man, having done work for Top Rank, DiBella Entertainment, EPIX, and for Facebook Fightnight Live, since 2017.