Boxing trainer Abel Sanchez has one of the most dynamic stars in the sport of boxing, as he trains IBO/WBA/WBC/IBF middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin. Golovkin is coming off a TKO5 win over reigning IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook, in a fight that was surprising competitive early, but ended the way most people predicted. With the victory “Triple G” expanded his marketability overseas and has positioned himself to become the first undisputed Middleweight champion in more then 10 years.
In part 1 of my “On The Ropes” boxing radio interview with Abel Sanchez, I discuss with him his fighters bout against Kell Brook and get his views on Golovkin’s performance. Abel also talked about his instructions to “GGG” after the second round and gave his views on the stoppage. Additionally Sanchez gave his thoughts on what’s next for Golovkin and who he thinks will take up the challenge. Here is what Abel Sanchez had to say.
Jenna J : You took Gennady Golovkin over to the UK and beat a very decorated welterweight champion in Kell Brook. How did you feel about the performance?
Abel Sanchez: It’s a win, it wasn’t the best performance but we got the win against an elite fighter, a world champion, so I’m happy about that.
Jenna J: Gennady was not the crowd favorite in the fight, what was it like traveling and fighting in another fighter’s home?
Abel Sanchez: We fought in Monte Carlo three or four times, we fought in Panama a couple of times, also in Ukraine. We’ve been overseas a lot, out of the country a lot. It was interesting to have twenty thousand Brit fans — not all of them were heckling and booing, but the majority of the fans were for Kell and we expected that.
Jenna J: Was there anything that surprised you about Kell Brook?
Abel Sanchez: No, absolutely not. I said in many interviews before the fight that he’s a welterweight, he’s got faster hands and faster feet. I expected to lose a couple of rounds early but I knew that in time Golovkin would get his timing down and get his sequences down and be able to touch him. Kell Brook is a very good fighter, I think if he had been in there with any other middleweight, he’d have a fifty-fifty chance of winning.
Jenna J: In this fight Golovkin looked like he was on the hunt from the opening bell. Was that something you guys prepared for or did he just want to take out the smaller guy quickly?
Abel Sanchez: He wasn’t looking at him like a smaller guy, he was looking at a guy that weighed at every point of the preparation more than Gennady. Every weight that was taken, Brook was higher than Gennady. Kell looked great. After Gennady hurt him in the first round with a left hook, Gennady wanted to make it a bar fight. He wanted a street fight.
Golovkin looked a little sloppy at times, but it’s a matter of putting on a dramatic show for everybody to enjoy and he’s not going to look the same against every fighter. Lemieux was not willing to attack, so Gennady kept him on the outside. Brook wanted to stand in the pocket and wanted to fight, so it made it a different kind of fight.
Jenna J: Most people say feel that Kell Brook won the second round, he landed a lot of punches. What did you tell Golovkin after that round?
Abel Sanchez: Nothing, I told him exactly what we had thought. There was no concern in our corner, there was no concern with Gennady. If you recall, in the second round of the Mayweather-Mosley fight, Mayweather was wobbled, Gennady was never wobbled. Any fighter can be hit by a good shot and hurt, any fighter can be hit by a lot of shots just by being in a fight with an elite fighter. It wasn’t a surprise.
Jenna J: How much longer do you think the fight would have lasted if Kell Brook’s corner didn’t throw in the towel?
Abel Sanchez: Not much longer, but it’s not so much about the fight lasting, it’s the damage that Kell Brook would have sustained. Gennady was hitting him with some clean shots and from what we understand now, it was a smart move from their corner to stop the fight. The damage in his eye required an operation to fix it. If you look at Antonio Margarito’s eye, he’s in pretty bad shape. If you remember when Erislandy Lara fought Alfredo Angulo, he had a damaged eye and he quit, he turned his back. All credit to Kell Brook, he hung in there and fought for as long as he could, but I’m sure the corner noticed that there was something definitely wrong.
Jenna J: What do you guys want after this fight?
Abel Sanchez: What we want and what the fans want is not what is going to happen. Daniel Jacobs is the mandatory and has been ordered by the WBA to face Gennady. Whether that fight can be put together, I don’t know, it’s up to Tom Loeffler and the Herman brothers. BJ Saunders is talking all kinds of smack about fighting Golovkin, yet he schedules a fight for October.
It’s difficult to say who can be next until Tom and the people who are in charge of those fighters get together and discuss it and come up with a plan. I don’t know, I wish I could tell you that we’re fighting so and so, but I know we are fighting before the end of the year, hopefully it’s in late November or early December, but against who, I don’t know.
I don;t think GGG was hurt with Brook, but he was hit very well. If a full middleweight hit GGG like that though he might be wobbled.
no way GGG beat Floyd GGG style is tailor made for Floyd.Floyd will counter him all night long.
Ggg is best in world