The Legend Of Gennady Golovkin Haunts Opponents and Kills Future Fights

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“Whether it’s up or down, we want to fight whoever is the best, and with Geale-Barker, the promoters of both have already said that they want no part of Gennady, but we’d love that fight. We’d love to fight 2 more times this year.”

Those were the words of trainer Abel Sanchez when speaking of his frustration with trying to get his star rising middleweight, Gennady Golovkin, a fight with the class of the middleweight division. What he said was correct. Daniel Geale won the WBA ‘Super’ Middleweight Champion when he defeated Felix Sturm in Germany and unified that belt with the IBF title. Golovkin as the ‘regular’ middleweight champion was the mandatory for Geale and instead of fighting Golovkin, dropped the WBA and went on to fight Anthony Mundine in Australia. Now he’s facing Darren Barker in Atlantic City in August.

Barker, who had come over to the states in 2011 to fight Sergio Martinez, is making his second attempt at a world title. His promoter Eddie Hearn at Matchroom Sport kept it honest with ThaBoxingVoice earlier this year and flat out said that he considered Barker a friend and he wouldn’t put Barker in such a high risk fight with such little reward.

So now what for Golovkin? “It’ a matter of trying to establish yourself as a superstar. Media has to put pressure on promoters and networks alike. We’ll go up and we’ll go down for the best fight,” stated Sanchez.

Much has been made about catch weights in the past few years because the two biggest names in the sport Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. have used catch weights to make the most lucrative fights. Golovkin has been on record as saying he’d fight anyone from 154-168 but Sanchez feels he’d be remised to fight a guy like Andre Ward at a catch weight instead of at the full 168 pound limit.

“I don’t believe in a catch weights. We want to fight the best at their division. If it’s Andre Ward, 168, if it’s Canelo, it’s at 154. He can make 154. I can’t have him make weight in 4 weeks but give me 8 weeks and he’ll be well prepared. He came in to camp for this Macklin fight at 167.”

It’s seemingly so hard to get the bigger fights for Golovkin that when Bernard Hopkins mentioned Golovkin’s name, Sanchez thought about it and feels it’s no big deal; meaning he’d love that fight even if there is an issue with rival networks.

“8 weeks is plenty of time to get up to making weight for Bernard Hopkins. He’ll (Golovkin) come in at 171, 172, all they got to do is ask, whether it’s HBO or Showtime. If you don’t ask, you’re never going to know. Make sure you call Tom Loeffler (Golovkin’s Promoter) and ask I’m sure things can all be worked out,” explained Sanchez

Sanchez was in the ring on the other side of the corner last time Hopkins fought when he was training Tavoris Cloud. The question was posed as to why the result would be any different being that his fighter was a previous victim of Hopkins.  Sanchez responded by saying, “I only had 6 weeks with Cloud and there’s no way you’re going to beat a Bernard Hopkins in 6 weeks. I’ve been with Gennady Golovkin for 3 years and I know he would be ready for a guy like Bernard Hopkins with an 8 week camp.”

Come this Saturday, Golovkin has what some say is his first legitimate threat to his title when he faces Matthew Macklin. Macklin is a tough customer who put up a good fight against Sergio Martinez and many say should have beaten Felix Sturm.  Sanchez is thankful a guy like Macklin stepped up.

“It’s hard to get guys to sign on the dotted line. But this fight was made in Monaco. Macklin’s a tough guy, it’s going to be a tough fight but Macklin has heart but his power is nowhere near Gennady’s,” stated Sanchez. Ask if he felt he needed to be more impressive than Sergio Martinez was against Macklin in order to get a possible Martinez fight, Sanchez stated, “It’s up to you guys to compare the two when he fights Macklin if he’s better than Martinez. Options are whoever signs on the dotted line. He is 31 years old so we don’t want to wait on the side line. This is barometer because if he does what he’s supposed to do then HBO will have no choice but to make the fights.

Those fights have already been mentioned with the likes of Martinez, Ward, Canelo, Barker, and Geale. Team Golovkin also makes no gripes into going overseas in fighting Carl Froch in England or fighting Martin Murray here in the United States if his visa issues are worked out. But not many guys at 160 are lining up to fight Golovkin that would be HBO approved. Sanchez feels it’s the stories of what happens in the gym in sparring.

“Quillin and Chavez sparred three rounds with Golovkin; he was going 60-70 percent, whooping on Chavez and Quillin. He holds back sometimes, even when Cotto was here, if he sparred with Cotto and he went full steam, there wouldn’t have been a Cotto-Trout fight.”

So the issue for Team Golovkin is making Golovkin worth fighting against because Sanchez says, “Money isn’t an issue but when Gennady Golovkin’s name comes up, it is a problem.”

 

For Audio of this interview click here: http://thaboxingvoice.cogito24.com/mikey-garcia-vs-juan-manuel-lopez-post-fight-plus-golovkin-and-soto-karass/15302