By Miguel Rivera
Veteran trainer Abel Sanchez, who is best known for his work with middleweight king Gennady Golovkin, is confident that in 2018 former world champion Carlos Cuadras (36-2-1, 27 KOs) will once again dominate the super flyweight division.
Cuadras recently hired Sanchez as his new head trainer to reclaim some lost footing in his weight class after close decision losses to Juan Franciso Estrada and Roman Gonzalez.
Sanchez said he hopes to work with him on specific details that have more to do with the physical than with the technical, as he considers him a very tough fighter.
Sanchez revealed that this week he began working on the physical conditioning of Cuadras, who had asked to gradually approach the weight limit of the division and not leave everything until the last few weeks to drop the weight, which may have also been affecting him in the past.
"Cuadras started this week with the strongest part of the training camp. We plan to work on it as we work with others... first the physical part and then in the next month add things so that he is a more complete fighter than he already is," said Sanchez to ESPN Desportes.
"In the physical part I think he needs work, because in the last fight (with Juan Francisco Estrada) he got a little tired, but he had started well."
With good physical work, Abel believes that Cuadras can once again dominate 115 pounds.
"He can definitely dominate at 115 pounds. He has work with the weight every day, before the fight he has to arrive with better weight, he has to work as a super flyweight must work for a fight. We already started working to lose a little weight every day to get him in good shape," Sanchez said.
Finally, he said of McWilliams Arroyo, the opponent for Cuadras on February 24th at The Forum in Inglewood, California.
"Arroyo is a good fighter, he's coming back from giving a good performance against Chocolatito - but since we're going to prepare Cuadras - I think he will not have a chance. The sparring will be ideal and he will arrive very well prepared to prove that he can be the star that I think he will be," Sanchez said.