By Miguel Rivera
Mexican superstar Saul "Canelo" Alvarez (49-1-2, 34 KOs) has fired back at Abel Sanchez, who is the head trainer for IBF, IBO, WBA, WBC middleweight world champion Gennady Golovkin (37-0-1, 33 KOs).
Earlier this month, Sanchez was highly critical of Canelo for using too much movement in their showdown from last September.
The bout ended in a controversial twelve round split draw, with scores of 118-110 Canelo, 115-113 Golovkin and 114-114.
Now the anticipated rematch is scheduled to take place on May 5th at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, which is where the first clash took place.
Sanchez compared the Mexican boxer to Floyd Mayweather Jr., who would beat his opponents by staying on the move, avoiding direct exchanges and simply outboxing them.
"Canelo surprised the fight fans after talking all that smack, he was a runner. Canelo turned into Floyd. McGregor turned Floyd into a Mexican and Golovkin turned Canelo into Floyd," Sanchez told On The Ropes Boxing Radio.
"It behooves Canelo — with as much talking as he’s doing this far away from the fight about his legacy and how he’s going to be remembered — to at least make it a fight. If he makes it a fight, who knows what can happen.
"When Canelo sat down, he was effective in the first fight, he just didn’t do it because he knew he’d get knocked out. If he does it more, maybe we get the kind of fight that we were expecting, and maybe Canelo hits hard enough to hurt Golovkin, but you’re never going to find out by back pedaling and running. Canelo needs to do what he’s saying."
Canelo lashed out at Sanchez, stating that the veteran coach believes he's great but has no idea what 'boxing' really is.
"[What Sanchez is saying] does not bother me, because he believes he is a great coach and he does not know what boxing is. He does not know what boxing is, he does not know what it is to have technique, what it is to box, what it is to make a move, knowing how to adapt to the circumstances of the fight... not just going forward, just going forward throwing punches - this is boxing. He believes he is a great coach who can not distinguish what it is to have technique," Canelo said.
