By Edward Chaykovsky
Abel Sanchez, trainer of IBF, IBO, WBC, WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin (37-0, 33 KOs), is not holding his breath on a finalized deal to face Mexican superstar Saul "Canelo" Alvarez (48-1-1, 34 KOs) in September.
Canelo is scheduled to come back to the ring on May 6th, when he faces countryman Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Golovkin's handlers are attempting to final a fight on June 10th in the champion's homeland of Kazakhstan. The target for that date is WBO middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders (24-0, 12 KOs).
Canelo's promoter, Oscar De La Hoya of Golden Boy Promotions, is not in favor of Golovkin taking an interim bout. He believes the match creates too much risk - with Golovkin putting himself in position to suffer a possible cut, an injury or even a loss. De La Hoya states that any of those three possibilities would derail a planned September pay-per-view with Canelo.
If Golovkin goes forward with the contest against Saunders, De La Hoya has threatened to take the Canelo fight off the table.
But Sanchez is not buying De La Hoya's recent comments. He feels the Golden CEO is creating an excuse to deflect some of the backlash from the boxing public when the September fight falls through.
"There’s a lot of ways to turn down a fight and that’s just another one of them. Eubank Sr. did a lot of those things too. The fight has been talked about for the past two years, the promoting of it has already been done," Sanchez told On The Ropes Boxing Radio.
"De La Hoya is just trying to make it as easy for himself when they decide not to do the fight, so he doesn’t get criticized. He’s posturing, he knows that is the fight that the public is looking for, and he knows that’s the best fight in boxing. Maybe the business of his company keeps him from finalizing the fight with Tom Loeffler."
