By Keith Idec
NEW YORK – Abel Sanchez sensed something different in Gennady Golovkin during his recently completed training camp.
Golovkin’s intensity throughout eight weeks of preparation at Sanchez’s gym in Big Bear, California, let Golovkin’s veteran trainer know that the Kazakh knockout artist understands Daniel Jacobs could pose problems his more recent opponents haven’t presented. The defending IBF/WBA/WBC/IBO middleweight champion is an 8-1 favorite over Jacobs, but Brooklyn’s Jacobs (32-1, 29 KOs) is two inches taller than Golovkin (36-0, 33 KOs) and is the most complete combination of boxer and puncher he’ll have faced in his 10-year pro career.
“For the first time in three or four fights, he’s got this edge on him, where he’s looking forward to the battle,” Sanchez said Monday before a press conference at Madison Square Garden. “He’s looking forward to the challenge that Danny presents. And we had guys in there that were pushing him [in sparring]. David [Benavidez] was really pushing him. So hopefully, it was the right strategy and we’re victorious on the 18th. But we have a hard battle.”
The lopsided odds aside, Sanchez and Golovkin acknowledge that Jacobs is more of a threat than Kell Brook, Dominic Wade, David Lemieux, Willie Monroe Jr., Martin Murray and all the other opponents Golovkin beat before stopping each of those opponents over the past two years.
“He just motivates [Golovkin] because he’s a heck of a fighter,” Sanchez said of Jacobs. “Very good skills, great right hand. That right there, for all of us, I think opens our eyes and makes sure that we’re prepared. We’re prepared to do what we need to do.”
Sanchez said Golovkin got in his usual amount of sparring, about 75 rounds, for the Jacobs fight. In addition to Benavidez (17-0, 16 KOs), a 20-year-old super middleweight prospect from Phoenix, Golovkin sparred against a pair of brothers from the Virgin Islands, Julius Jackson (19-2, 15 KOs) and John Jackson (20-3, 15 KOs), and KeAndrae Leatherwood (19-3-1, 12 KOs).
Leatherwood, of Birmingham, Alabama, is scheduled to encounter Ireland’s Andy Lee (34-3-1, 24 KOs) in an eight-round middleweight match on the Golovkin-Jacobs undercard (HBO Pay-Per-View; 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT; $64.95 in HD/$54.95 in SD).
“No issues,” Sanchez said. “A normal camp for him. He comes in at weight, so it’s easy to do the things we have to do.”
When asked if he’s ever had a “bad camp” since he started training Golovkin, Sanchez said, “They are always great because he comes in at weight. It’s not a camp to lose weight. He came in at 170. I think for the [WBC’s] seven-day weigh-in he weighed 162. For the 30-day weigh-in, he weighed 165, 164, something like that.”
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
