Abel Sanchez: “This is not going to be a Mayweather – Pacquiao fight. Golovkin and Lemieux are going to try and hurt each other!”

Abel Sanchez is quickly becoming one of the most sought after trainers in the sport, as he has taken IBO/WBA middleweight champ, Gennady Golovkin, up the pound-for-pound ranks and has several fighters on the verge of world titles. Sanchez is currently preparing Golovkin for what appears to be the biggest fight in his career, a unification fight against IBF champion, David Lemieux.

In part 1 of this “On The Ropes” boxing radio interview with Abel Sanchez, I discuss with him the October 17th PPV title fight, and what he thinks of Lemieux as an opponent. Sanchez also talks about Nadjib Mohammedi’s recent title shot and why he thinks they came up short. Additionally, Abel discusses the disappointment with the Mayweather vs. Pacquiao fight and how he thinks that has impacted the sport. Here is what Abel Sanchez had to say.

Jenna J: Gennady Golovkin, is going to have a unification fight on October 17th against David Lemieux. How do you feel about that fight?

Abel Sanchez: We’ve been looking for a big fight. We’ve been looking for somebody to step up, and now that David’s got the IBF title, it makes a lot of sense for us, because Gennady wants to unify. Gennady is a big fan of the middleweight division and he understands where Lemieux stands in that order, so it’s going to be a challenge not only physically, but mentally for Gennady.

Jenna J: Were you surprised that this fight was made, being the fact that Gennady has such a hard time finding big named opponents? David Lemieux obviously has a big fan base in his own right.

Abel Sanchez: I think a lot of us were, but in listening to Oscar De La Hoya, he keeps talking about making the best fights available and making good fights for boxing. I’m surprised that he would let one of his big stars — of course he’s letting him fight Golovkin because he thinks he’s going to win, but it’s good for boxing. It’s good for Oscar, it’s good for everybody all the way around.

Jenna J: Abel, what do you see in David Lemieux as an opponent?

Abel Sanchez: As a plus, I think that he’s a big puncher. He’s a big puncher on a roll, as Golovkin is, but he’s one of these wild swingers that something’s going to land and it’s going to hurt you. As a negative, I think he’s a little too wide for Golovkin, so he’s going to be available for Golovkin’s counter punches. But all in all, that’s a perfect recipe for an explosive fight.

Jenna J: That’s one of the dangers with David Lemieux, because he is a legitimate hard puncher. With Gennady’s fan friendly style, do you think he might actually take things a little bit more cautiously earlier?

Abel Sanchez: I think both guys will be aware of what the other guy has, but we as fans – and I am a fight fan too — we’ve been asking for the best fights to be made. The guys that are wingers and bangers that are gonna go in there and let it all hang out, that’s what we as fans are craving for. This fight got made, these guys are not going to take it easy, this is not going to be a May 2nd fight, it’s going to be a fight that both guys are going to try to hurt each other.

Jenna J: I want to talk about one of your other fighters that recently fought. Nadjib Mohammedi had a title effort against Sergey Kovalev and he came up short, can you tell me a little bit about that fight and what you saw there?

Abel Sanchez: I had a young man named Nadjib Mohammedi, I was in a second training camp with him, and actually the first one was a little short training camp because he had a fight come up real quick. He’s a kid that had a good run in France and he came to the States as the number one contender. I took him on and tried to do the best that we could with what he had.

Unfortunately for Nadjib he was the number one contender against the best light heavy weight in the world. Sergey Kovalev has proven that he is an elite fighter and we had a difficult time that night. But Nadjib is coming back to camp in middle of September and we’ll try to get the ball rolling again and hopefully get another shot.

Jenna J: Do you ever see a possibility that somewhere down the line that maybe as Golovkin moves up gets a little bit older, that maybe a match up can present itself between him and Kovalev?

Abel Sanchez: Gennady is 33 years old already, he’ll be 34 next April. He’s 33+ right now and a couple of years from now, hopefully he’s got his middleweight titles all in line and has a couple of super middleweight fights.

If that fight presents itself, that’s going to be really up to them, because they are acquaintances. I don’t know how friends they are but they are acquaintances, they know each other and they have a lot of respect for each other. So whether that fight comes off, it would have to be something that is very monetarily feasible for both of them. But I don’t think that’s a fight that either one of them is looking for.

Jenna J: Earlier in the interview you mentioned how Golovkin vs. Lemieux isn’t going to be like that May 2nd bout. Since you brought that up, I’m just curious what kind of negative impact do you think Mayweather vs. Pacquiao had on the sport of boxing?

Abel Sanchez: Well all of us had been looking forward to that fight, all fight fans had been looking forward to that fight for five years but most people seem to forget that Mayweather has fought 47 times the same way. It wasn’t going to be a bar fight, it was going to be a Mayweather fight. And because Pacquiao was not one hundred percent — as we find out now — that fight ended up being a dud.

For the money that was charged for the fight, it left a negative impact on a lot of the fight fans because a lot of people felt they got took, they didn’t get what they paid for and rightfully so. I don’t think it lived up to the expectations.

Five years ago I think it would’ve been a different fight. Pacquiao would have been in a better position, maybe not as injured as he claims to have been, but it’s over with. There is nothing we can do about it, we just have to learn from it and understand that Mayweather is going to fight that kind of fight no matter who he fights.