By Edward Chaykovsky
Abel Sanchez, who trains WBA/WBC/IBO/IBF middleweight champion Gennady 'GGG' Golovkin (36-0, 33KOs), is in disbelief that Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez (48-1-1, 34KOs) is still recognized as the middleweight champion by Ring Magazine.
Canelo captured the WBC middleweight - at a catch-weight of 155-pounds, last November with a twelve round decision win over Miguel Cotto.
He defended the belt, also at 155, by knocking out Amir Khan in May. Not long after that fight, Canelo vacated the belt and moved down to junior middleweight.
Last Saturday night at AT&T Stadium in Texas, Canelo became a world champion at 154 when he captured the WBO junior middleweight belt with a knockout of Liam Smith.
Sanchez sees a very big conflict going on. Canelo is promoted by Oscar De La Hoya of Golden Boy Promotions. And De La Hoya is also the owner of Ring Magazine. Sanchez wants De La Hoya to answer the press on why his magazine is still Canelo as their middleweight champion when the Mexican star officially left that division and captured a world title at 154. He feels the belt should have been made vacant or placed up for grabs in another fight.
The perfect fight for that title, would be the potential showdown between Golovkin and Daniel Jacobs - a fight which is currently being negotiated for December 10th in New York.
"[De La Hoya] owns the Ring belt, he owns the Ring magazine, he owns the Ring belt. It’s a question that should be asked of him. When he gave up the middleweight belt, why is he still rated as a middleweight when he’s fighting as a junior middleweight. This was when he fought back in May, yet he’s still considered that, which is ridiculous. That’s out of our control, the guy that owns the Ring belt is Oscar De La Hoya," Sanchez told On The Ropes Boxing Radio.
