By Radio Rahim
Abel Sanchez, trainer for IBO, WBC, WBA, IBF middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin (36-0, 33 KOs), says his fighter is more focused than he's every been in training camp.
Golovkin will make a mandatory defense against the man who most view as his most dangerous opponent, Daniel Jacobs (32-1, 29 KOs), on March 18th.
The HBO Pay-Per-View fight takes place at Madison Square Garden in New York City. The promoters are expecting a sold-out event by fight night.
According to Sanchez, Golovkin looked a little vulnerable in some of his recent fights because he wasn't fully focused and didn't view his opponents as legit threats. Against fighters like Willie Monroe, Kell Brook and Dominic Wade - Golovkin took his foot off the gas. That won't be the case with Jacobs.
"In the Monroe fight, he kept egging Willie to come on, give it a fight, because once it gets too easy for him he loses interest. In Wade fight it was the same thing. Even against Brook, after he hurt Brook in the first round he wanted to make it a street fight. But this is the first fight, since the [David] Lemieux fight, where the interest is back for him," Sanchez told BoxingScene.com.
"And its not that he doesn’t train, because he trains very hard for every fight, but when the fight finally happen his interest is not as strong. Danny presents the kind of challenge, or a perceived threat where he can win. He hits hard enough where he can hurt Golovkin. He has 29 knockouts in 33 fights, so only 3 guys went the distance – the same as Golovkin."
"This is the first fighter who really poses that kind of threat, to Golovkin and to me. Also, because obviously I don’t want this [streak of wins and knockouts] to end – I have to make sure that we do the things that are necessary to where we destroy him in the same way that we’ve destroyed everybody else."
