By Keith Idec

Gennady Golovkin and Abel Sanchez suspect fame and fortune have changed Canelo Alvarez.

They remember a vastly different person in 2011, when the eventual superstar spent time training at Sanchez’s gym and sparring against Golovkin in Big Bear Lake, California.

Golovkin and Sanchez acknowledged during a press conference Monday in Los Angeles that there’s bad blood between Golovkin and Alvarez now that they’ve fought to a controversial draw and endured the costly cancelation of their May 5 rematch.

“He was in my training camp probably about six years ago,” Sanchez said. “He spent three different training camps in my gym. And then Gennady was just saying he was a different kind of person. He was a very humble, very nice kid. It seems that today his riches have made him a different person. He’s a very good fighter. He’s an exceptional fighter. He’s doing a lot with boxing in Mexico.

“But as fast he went up, he can go back down. And all the people that you stepped on on the way up, you’re gonna meet on the way down. So I think that his persona today and even sometimes his actions – what he says and what he doesn’t say and what he doesn’t do – are hurting him.”

Kazakhstan’s Golovkin, 36, has been extremely critical of the 27-year-old Alvarez for twice testing positive for clenbuterol in February and claiming contaminated meat caused him to fail those performance-enhancing drug tests. Golovkin also questioned why Mexico’s Alvarez hadn’t enrolled in year-round testing by the Voluntary Anti-Doping Association, a commitment Alvarez made about a month ago.

Their contentious relationship worsened when Golovkin demanded more money for their middleweight championship rematch last month. A deal, which reportedly will afford Alvarez a 55-45 revenue split, was reached Wednesday for Golovkin (38-0-1, 34 KOs) and Alvarez (49-1-2, 34 KOs) to fight again September 15 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas (HBO Pay-Per-View).

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