Golovkin's Coach: Canelo Would Drill Pacquiao Worse Than Khan!

By Edward Chaykovsky

Abel Sanchez, trainer for WBC/WBA/IBO/IBF middleweight champion Gennady 'GGG' Golovkin (35-0, 32KOs), says a fight between Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez and Manny Pacquiao would end up being more vicious than Canelo's recent bout with Amir Khan.

Golovkin was the mandatory challenger to Canelo when he was the WBC champion at 160. The two sides were in talks, but Canelo made a decision to vacate his belt last week and the sanctioning body named Golovkin as their new champion.

Negotiations for Golovkin-Canelo are ongoing. Most insiders expect the two fighters to go in separate directions, at least until next year.

Canelo was in action earlier this month and brutally knocked out Khan in six rounds. The fight took place at a catch-weight of 155-pounds, with Khan going up from the welterweight limit of 147.

One possible option being kicked around for Canelo is a pay-per-view showdown with another welterweight, Manny Pacquiao.

Pacquiao announced his retirement last month to focus on his political career in the Philippines. Pacquiao's trainer, Freddie Roach, believes he will fight again in the future - and he would love to see him face Canelo if a rehdyration clause is in place. Pacquiao's promoter, Bob Arum of Top Rank, is also interested in that fight. According to Roach, Arum contacted him about the fight and the veteran trainer accepted.

Sanchez expects Canelo-Pacquiao to play out in a similar layout to Canelo-Khan. He says Pacquiao will present some problems in the early rounds, and then Canelo's size and power will take over. There is a very big size difference between Pacquiao and Canelo, even bigger than the one between Canelo and Khan.  For that very reason Sanchez believes the fight would end very badly for Pacquiao.

"The way that Canelo goes up in weight after the weigh in, I would fear that it would be much more of a lopsided fight than the Khan fight was, just because Manny is such a small little guy. Manny may be able to get to Canelo for the first few couple of rounds like Khan did, but after that, I think Canelo would figure him out and his size would be too much," Sanchez told On The Ropes Boxing Radio. 

"It would be like Canelo trying to swat a fly off of his body, especially now that Pacquiao is this old and has slowed down a little bit. I don’t think it’s a fight that the public would want to see — at least I wouldn’t want to see it."