ABEL SANCHEZ: "YOU SAW GENNADY FUNCTIONING ON ALL CYLINDERS...WE ARE TARGETING ANYBODY THAT'S INTERESTED"
By Percy Crawford | November 11, 2013
"At the beginning of the fight, you saw Gennady functioning on all cylinders trying to be collective of what he was doing...We are targeting anybody that's interested. Of course Peter Quillin because he is a champion and we would like to unify. Darren Barker, whose promoter already said he would not put him in the ring with Golovkin. Martinez is on the shelf and talking about moving down to 54. But all of those guys are targets," stated world-class trainer Abel Sanchez, who talked about Gennady Golovkin's recent victory over Curtis Stevens, their future plans, and much more. Check it out!
PC: Obviously you have to be happy about the performance that Gennady Golovkin put on against Curtis Stevens. What are your thoughts?
AS: I thought he fought well. I thought that after the knockdown in the 2nd round, Curtis went into somewhat of a shell, so it was difficult to get to him. Gennady was patient and he wore him down and Andre [Rozier] and his corner did the right thing in stopping it. Curtis is a helluva fighter; he just went up against somebody that was a little better that night. He will still beat a lot of middleweights.
PC: Gauging his reaction when he was knocked down, I was very surprised he was able to get up and continue for so long.
AS: Andre did an extraordinary job of getting him prepared for this fight. If he wasn't in the kind of shape that Andre got him in, there is no way he could have gotten up and continued. I gotta commend Andre for having him ready.
PC: You had Gennady ready as always and he really did some good work, both upstairs and downstairs. Was the game plan to chop down the body early?
AS: Yeah, it was kind of the plan, but you never know what's going to happen once somebody gets hurt like Curtis did. When he got hurt, he went into a shell and at that point, it's kind of finding a spot because Curtis is such a compact fighter, hands is up high around his head, and he is a short fighter, so it's difficult to get to him. But fortunately, every round we wore him down and luckily we were able to stop him.
PC: It never appeared that Gennady came out of cruise control during the course of the fight. Have we not even seen the best of Golovkin yet?
AS: I would say at the beginning of the fight, you saw Gennady functioning on all cylinders trying to be collective of what he was doing, but once he knocked him down, it was more or less cruise control, you're right, but Curtis wasn't...for all of this talk that was talked about before the fight, Curtis was a serious opponent and we didn't take him lightly. We were going to prepare because we knew we had a formidable opponent in front of us. But after the knockdown, I think we went back to practicing some of the things we do in the gym.
PC: When you have an athlete like Golovkin, who is a talented fighter but also a hard worker in the gym, how easy does it make your job to not have to drag him into the gym or get him motivated?
AS: Ah, it's quite easy. We coaches can only do so much. We don't get the contribution from the athlete, it's impossible for us to do miracles. Luckily, I'm in charge of a guy who wants to train as hard as anybody else in the gym, that's always on time, and never complains or questions anything. So it definitely makes our job easier. It takes the athlete to be that way for us to look good.
PC: When you have a guy like Golovkin that can punch and he's getting guys out of there, it's tough to find fights for them. Do you think the top guys will avoid him or do you think if he continues to steamroll guys, it will force the top guys' hand?
AS: You know, a year or so ago, we sat down with his managers and promoter, Tom Leoffler, and Gennady was there and we discussed all of that and we knew it would be difficult to get guys in the ring. The important thing is to stay busy. If we stay busy like we did this year and like we plan on doing in 2014, things are gonna happen. They have to happen. Eventually, people will step up because they are gonna have to. News captions and internet sites will shame them into taking the fight. As long as we stay busy, keep winning and looking impressive, I think all of those fights will come.
PC: Is he settled in a the middleweight division or is he willing to go up or down for some of those big fights?
AS: We talked about that in the past as well and he is willing to go down to 54 and up to 68, but I think that we have a lot of unfinished business at 160. There are a lot of guys that are talking like they want to fight us and if they do, then hopefully they can get done. But once they refuse to fight us, then the move will be either up or down.
PC: Obviously the Peter Quillin's and Sergio Martinez's are at the top of the list of guys you would like to fight. Do you have a preference?
AS: We are targeting anybody that's interested. Of course Peter Quillin because he is a champion and we would like to unify. Darren Barker, whose promoter already said he would not put him in the ring with Golovkin. Martinez is on the shelf and talking about moving down to 54. But all of those guys are targets. As far as Peter is concerned, Peter seems to think that there is a wall between us because of Showtime and HBO and that he can't fight Gennady because he is an HBO fighter and he is a Showtime fighter. Well, unfortunately for Peter, the only time that that wall gets put up is when Golovkin's name is mentioned. As soon as he beat Rosado in his last fight, the first name that he called out was another HBO fighter named Martinez. So with Peter, the only time that the HBO versus Showtime barrier exists is when Golovkin's name gets mentioned. But we would love that fight.
PC: How long will you give Gennady off from the gym before you bring him back in?
AS: He's going to be fighting on February 1st, so he will be back in camp on December 1st.
PC: Being that you have been around the boxing game for so long, would you say the biggest difference between now and back in your early days in the sport is the inability to make the best fight the best?
AS: That is the biggest difference. I think now champions are so protected. A zero on your record now is so important and it is a death sentence today in these times. In the past, when Hagler and Leonard and Benitez and those guys were fighting, they fought each other. They lost and they fought each other and all of the greats make themselves great. Today, it's unfortunate that they are so protected and we don't see those marquee fights anymore like we did back then. That's why it was so important for Gennady and his people to understand when they came to the United States that we have to take all of those fights to make him that star that we thought he could be. He has to fight anybody and everybody that comes to the plate.