By Radio Rahim
Abel Sanchez, trainer for former middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin, is very familiar with both Canelo Alvarez and Daniel Jacobs. In the last two years, Sanchez trained Golovkin for high profile bouts against both boxers.
Canelo and Jacobs will collide on May 4th, in an IBF, WBC, WBA middleweight unification from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Golovkin won a close twelve round decision over Jacobs in March of 2017. In September of the same year, GGG fought Canelo to a controversial twelve round draw. In their September 2018 rematch, Canelo walked away with a twelve round majority decision.
When sizing them up, Sanchez believes Canelo will have a little too much boxing ability and hand speed for Jacobs.
"Canelo should win, but Jacobs is a heck of a fighter. I think Canelo's hand speed and his boxing ability will keep Jacobs at bay," Sanchez told BoxingScene.com.
But, Sanchez is not ruling out the possibility of Jacobs pulling off the upset decision - but explains that it won't be easy to secure a twelve round decision over a superstar like Canelo - at least in the city of Las Vegas.
"I wouldn't past it that Jacobs can decision him - but the problem is that they are fighting in Vegas. And Danny already knows that he's three points down going into Vegas. He's going to have to work very hard to win a decision, but it's possible," Sanchez said.
"I think Vegas has had a history of taking on or harboring a particular fighter. It was [Julio Cesar] Chavez in the beginning, then it was Floyd [Mayweather], and now it's Canelo. I think, they bring money into the city.... and too many scores and too many controversies, like one judge scoring 114-114 when Floyd fought Canelo, it makes me think that there is some kind of malice there, some kind of corruption."
