By Carlos Boogs, Ryan Burton

Abel Sanchez, trainer of WBA/IBF/IBO/WBC middleweight champion Gennady 'GGG' Golovkin (36-0, 33KOs), created a big reaction from the fans when he recently stated that his fighter was capable of beating Sergey Kovalev, Andre Ward and Adonis Stevenson - who are two weight divisions above Golovkin.

Kovalev, who was once trained by Sanchez, will defend his IBF/WBO/WBA light heavyweight belts against Ward on November 19th at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Stevenson will defend his WBC title in the first quarter of next year.

Golovkin's goal, at the moment, is to capture the only remaining title at 160-pounds, which is the WBO belt currently owned by Billy Joe Saunders of the UK. Once he captures that final belt, Golovkin will then move up in weight to 168-pounds.

Before Golovkin can get his hands on Saunders (or whoever will hold the WBO belt), he will have to make a mandatory defense against Daniel Jacobs - which is being negotiated for the first quarter of 2017.

Sanchez explained the background to his recent comments regarding Golovkin's ability to beat the best fighters two weight divisions up. The veteran trainer predicts that Golovkin will become an even better fighter when he moves up in weight - which is why he's so confident on what GGG will do against the three top boxers at 175.  

"I was asked a question that if he ever moved up, would he be able to beat them. I said a while back that he would be a better 168-pounder than he would be a 160-pounder. Those three guys that I mentioned are beatable by Golovkin. We have not seen the best of Golovkin. The goal right now is the four belts, so it's not like I'm talking about tomorrow," Sanchez explained to BoxingScene.com.

"I'm talking about down the road when he wins the four belts. It could be a couple of years, it could be next year. It could be the end of next year that we'll be ready to move up. Right now we're focused on what's in front of us, but I truly feel he'll be a better fighter at 168."