Abel Sanchez: Canelo is a Slapper

Canelo Alvarez may have knocked out three of his last five opponents, but that isn’t enough to worry Abel Sanchez, the trainer of unified middleweight world champion Gennady Golovkin. Sanchez feels Alvarez’s power pales in comparison to GGG’s.

Alvarez may have a 49-1-1 record, but his knockout ratio also is significantly less than Golovkin’s. Among Alvarez’s 49 victories, 34 have come by way of the KO. As for GGG, who is undefeated at 36-0, 33 opponents have been knocked out.

“Amir Khan was a lightweight and he got knocked out by [Breidis] Prescott,” Sanchez said. “And you’re going to make it look like a huge deal that he hurt Kirkland? Kirkland hadn’t fought for two years and he gets hurt by everybody. Ishida knocked him out. Who has [Alvarez] knocked out that you could say, ‘Yeah, that was a great KO of a guy who is tough to KO?’

“He’s a slapper. He’s a slapper who throws very good, fast combinations. He’s going to have to do more than slap to keep Golovkin off of him.”

Golovkin has eaten some criticism, however, in his latest performance, a decision win over Daniel Jacobs that some feel ended up being a huge test for GGG.

Alvarez’s promoter, Oscar De La Hoya, promised the Alvarez-GGG fight would happen by September, but Sanchez wonders if this bout would happen if GGG finished Jacobs early.

“Do you think if he would have come in [and blown Jacobs out] that we would be having this fight on the [Sept. 16]?” Sanchez said. “Yes, I absolutely believe that. Oscar was talking about 2018. I don’t think this fight would be on if Gennady had just gone in there and blown Danny away.

“It’s funny, isn’t it, that as soon as the fight was over with Jacobs, [Team Alvarez] all of a sudden started talking about making the fight with us. I don’t think that’s a coincidence.”

GGG-Alvarez takes place on Sept. 16 from Las Vegas.