Abel Sanchez: GGG will be back, he’s a proud champion

He’s one of the most fearless talkers among the ranks of trainers within the fight game, so it’s no surprise that Reddit has tapped Abel Sanchez for the “Ask Me Anything” series twice now.

The Big Bear-based tutor took queries from fight fans, and some 900 questions were put into queue Wednesday for the man who cornered Gennady Golovkin on September 15 for the second showdown with Canelo Alavarez.

Among the tidbits gleaned from the Reddit sesh:

Asked who GGG might scrap with if the third Canelo fight doesn’t come to fruition right away, Sanchez said, “Either BJ Saunders for the WBO title, or whoever wins with Andrade and BJS, or Ryota Murata, who is the WBA regular champion.” (Murata is in against Rob Brant on October 20, so that has to get settled first.)

It’s clear that Sanchez believes GGG won’t be too demoralized from this loss to the Mexican. “Continue to watch because it’s not over, Gennady will be back. He’s a proud champion, he came out a champion, and he handled it in the manner of a true champion. He’ll be back.”

He was asked if Canelo is the hardest puncher GGG has faced.

“No. I would say David Lemieux and Curtis Stevens. Canelo’s probably the fastest middleweight, and probably the smartest in the ring,” said Sanchez, no small praise.

Someone asked about GGG looking fatigued early.

“No, I disagree with that,” Sanchez answered. “Some European amateur systems encourage that deep breathing, and when he was coming up as an amateur that was encouraged in the corner, a lot of them do that, breathe deep in to fill their lungs. If he had been fatigued, he wouldn’t have been able to do what he did in the 11th and 12th.”

Just how bummed is GGG, anyway? “He’s disappointed, a little angry that Vegas seems to favor the house fighter. There’s nothing we can do to change the decision, so we discussed how we’re gonna approach questions about it. We feel Gennady is the people’s champion, the people feel he won, so that’s what we’re thinking.”

He also explained what he was thinking when he whispered to GGG that the Kazakh was losing the fight. “I thought it was an even fight up to that point honestly. But the reason I said that, I whispered it into his ear so it was more for him, even though I was miked, I wanted it to be a motivational thing, to try to distance himself.”

And would Abel want the third dance-off out of Vegas? “All the big fights are either in Vegas or New York depending on the time of year and what the powers that be agree to. The promoters, wherever the best is for the fighters and themselves. For us, it’s still a ring, an opponent and a referee inside.”

And he touched on the topic of HBO and their boxing program. “From what I understand, both guys, this was their last fight with HBO so I don’t know. Gennady has his advisers and promoter that will make those decisions. I coach him, and that’s good enough for me.”

We’d like to see more fighters do the AMA format, right? Who else shoud Reddit target for the Q&A?