By Radio Rahim

Abel Sanchez, trainer of IBO, IBF, WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin, is a very happy man - because he explains that his boxer did not bow down to the percentage demands of their upcoming opponent, Canelo Alvarez.

Golovkin is set to defend his world titles against Canelo in a rematch on September 15th at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

Their first contest, which took place in September 2017, ended in a controversial twelve round split draw.

For weeks, the two sides were haggling over the monetary percentages with respect to the revenue from the pay-per-view.

Initially, Canelo and his handlers offered a split of 65-35 - which Golovkin rejected.

Eventually there was a split offered of 60-40 and Golovkin rejected that as well.

Golovkin was standing firm on a 50-50 demand.

Then a split of 57.5-42.5 was offered, and Golovkin once again rejected the numbers.

In the end, Golovkin finally agreed to a 55-45 split - with a few incentives in the deal as well.

"The first thing that the fans have to understand is - when he said 50-50 - he meant 50-50. The only reason that he came down to 45% is that the fans understood that he has no excuses. He said 'I'll come down to 45% so the fight can be made.' Golovkin did not give in at 45%, he got what he wanted," Sanchez told BoxingScene.com.

During those negotiations, there were numerous times where Canelo issued deadlines - where Golovkin had to agree to the terms or the fight was a dead issue.

"All of the ultimatums, the deadlines and everything - [Golovkin] was in Russia, he didn't care. He didn't care. He had a fight set up, in case this didn't go through, with Billy Joe Saunders on the 25th of August at The Forum. The fight was nearly completed and the conditions were that we had to have these [negotiations closed out] with Canelo first. Golovkin was in Russia. He didn't care. He got what he was asking for. So it has to be a win-win for Golovkin," Sanchez said.