By Keith Idec
NEW YORK – Like virtually everyone invested in boxing, Abel Sanchez spent many days wondering whether Canelo-Golovkin would go the way of Mayweather-Pacquiao.
Gennady Golovkin’s trainer was worried that the public would become so sick of talking about why the fight hadn’t been made, that when a deal finally came together consumers wouldn’t be as passionate about their middleweight showdown. Now that their middleweight title fight is scheduled for September 16 at an undetermined site, Sanchez is relieved that the hypothetical phase is behind him.
Sanchez also is certain that Kazakhstan’s Golovkin (37-0, 33 KOs) and Mexico’s Alvarez (49-1-1, 34 KOs) will deliver the action-packed classic Mayweather and Pacquiao failed to produce two years ago.
“I’m happy that they didn’t wait like the Pacquiao-Mayweather fight,” Sanchez told BoxingScene.com. “They didn’t wait that long to sour us. I think that the pay-per-view market has shown the effects of the Pacquiao-Mayweather fight, because people have rebelled and not bought.
“I think that this fight is happening at the time that boxing needs it. I think that this fight is gonna live up to the hype and live up to the kind of fights that we used to see back when we had the ‘Four Horsemen’ or ‘Five Horsemen,’ whatever you wanna call them back then. It should be that kind of fight and it should revive or resurge our industry.”
A record of roughly 4.6 million consumers purchased Mayweather-Pacquiao, which earned more than $600 million in overall revenue in May 2015. But the mundane nature of the incomparably hyped fight, combined with Pacquiao’s claim that he entered their welterweight title fight with a shoulder injury, caused considerable backlash from fans and media.
Now that promoter Oscar De La Hoya has indicated that the Alvarez-Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. fight drew more than 1 million pay-per-view buys, expectations within the boxing industry are that Alvarez-Golovkin can eclipse 1.5 million buys. The buy rate aside, based on their styles and chins Sanchez can’t envision a scenario in which Golovkin-Alvarez doesn’t develop into the memorable bout everyone expects.
“The one plus I think for this fight is that neither guy has a problem with weight,” Sanchez said. “So they’re not gonna be dead come fight night. Both guys come forward, both guys throw punches, one guy has a little more combination punching, which is Canelo, just with his hand speed. They’re both not Floyd in the defensive department. But they both come to fight and as fans, that’s what we wanna see. So I think it lives up to all that and I think it’s the kind of fight where there’s gonna be a second and third one – it’s that good.”
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.