Sanchez Hopes Canelo Stands Up Between Rounds Against Golovkin

By Keith Idec

LAS VEGAS – Abel Sanchez doesn’t just want Canelo Alvarez to stand in the center of the ring against Gennady Golovkin.

The middleweight champion’s trainer also wants Alvarez to stand between rounds during their scheduled 12-round title fight Saturday night at T-Mobile Arena. Sanchez was perplexed when Alvarez avoided sitting down between rounds throughout his domination of Mexican rival Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. on May 6 at T-Mobile Arena.

“I had a problem with him not sitting down,” Sanchez told BoxingScene.com. “I didn’t understand that.”

Sanchez still isn’t sure why Alvarez (49-1-1, 34 KOs) didn’t sit on his stool throughout that fight. He hopes he does it again, though, because the veteran trainer believes it would give Golovkin (37-0, 33 KOs) an advantage in their HBO Pay-Per-View main event (8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT; $79.99 in HD).

“I hope he doesn’t take the weight off his feet,” Sanchez said. “I hope he stands, but you can make all kinds of excuses to make it the right thing to do. But that means thousands and thousands of great fighters have never done that, so one guy does it and that’s right, and the other guys are wrong? I think that we’re missing something here. I thought maybe there was an issue with his lower back, and that’s why he wasn’t sitting down. I don’t know. But the doctor checked him out after the fight and they said he was fine.”

In hindsight, Sanchez suspects it was a psychological ploy on the part of Alvarez.

“Maybe it was just a mental play with Chavez on the other side,” Sanchez said. “So he would say, ‘How come this guy’s not sitting down?’ So maybe Canelo played with his mind. There’s so much sh*t that goes on. Trust me, those guys sitting across from each other, 20 feet away, they see expressions, they see everything. If the other guy’s not sitting down, Chavez has gotta be saying, ‘Wow! The guy’s not tired.’ So it could’ve been demoralizing. I don’t know, but it was just strange to me that it happened.”

Regardless, Sanchez wouldn’t condone one of his fighters remaining on his feet between rounds.

“It’s absolutely important to take the weight off the feet, in my opinion,” Sanchez said. “But then again, there’s a lot of different ways to do this and everybody’s got an opinion.”

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.