By Edward Chaykovsky
Abel Sanchez, currently best known for being the head trainer of IBF, WBC, IBO, WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin, has a real problem with the much discussed cross-sports fight between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and UFC superstar Conor McGregor.
Mayweather and McGregor are both on board with facing each other in a boxing match. The two athletes have been bashing each other for over a year in numerous interviews.
Mayweather turned up the pressure last month, when he announced that he was officially coming out of retirement - but only for a fight with McGregor.
Mayweather (49-0, 26 KOs), who retired back in September 2015, is regarded as one of the best defensive fighters in boxing history. McGregor, who is the biggest star in MMA, is a massive underdog if he faces Mayweather in a boxing match.
Sanchez views the contest as a carnival act that will damage boxing. He feels it's a big money grab that gives the fans nothing more than a high priced one-sided beating on pay-per-view.
"That’s bad for the sport of boxing because if that fight happens, Floyd Mayweather will be facing an amateur. McGregor is an amateur in the boxing game, it would be the same thing as when Ronda Rousey faced Holly Holm. Holly Holm had 39 professional boxing matches, there’s a difference in the sport. If McGregor and Floyd were going to fight in an MMA fight, then of course you would lean the other way. If it’s going to be a boxing match, it’s an insult to the fans to have that fight happen," Sanchez told On The Ropes Boxing Radio.
Sanchez also believes the fight will hurt Mayweather, who the veteran trainer expects to become wildly defensive when the critics attack him for even accepting such a contest.
"It will hurt Floyd, but Floyd will make where we’re picking on him because he took the fight where we don’t understand and that it’s a racial thing. He’ll make all kinds of excuses about it by doing it. I hope it doesn’t happen because it does hurt our sport, it does hurt boxing. I think we’re doing very well in boxing right now and that would be a slap in the face to our sport," Sanchez said.
