Abel Sanchez, trainer of IBF/WBC/WBA middleweight champ Gennady Golovkin either has a very short memory or a very high tolerance for hypocrisy.
When recently asked about Jermall Charlo’s status as the WBC’s mandatory challenger, Sanchez was very clear about his unwillingness to accept the sanctioning body’s “must fight” proclamation.
“[He earned the shot] by fighting who? What does that mean that he's a mandatory? That he deserves a shot? He's got to earn his shot. We sat for Felix Sturm for two years. We sat for Sergio Martinez for two years. These guys all of a sudden think that they deserve a shot at the winner of Golovkin and Canelo - they're crazy. They've got to earn it," he said during an interview with Boxingscene.
Sanchez is clearly forgetting Golovkin’s fairly recent bout with Dominic Wade back in April of 2016. You know, the one where Sanchez and the rest of Team Golovkin claimed that their hands were tied in taking on Wade because he was their IBF mandatory. In terms of “deserving,” Wade’s pre-Golovkin resume makes Charlo’s look Hall of Fame-worthy by comparison.
But, of course, the narrative painted for Golovkin was that nobody would face him and that fighters were hiding under their beds rather than even consider stepping into the ring with him. So, if press releases and conveniently-placed fake news were to be believed, then fighting Wade couldn’t be held against him—right?
Now that Golovkin managed to get the money fight (against Canelo Alvarez) he always wanted, though, there’s apparently no need to pretend about Triple G’s burning desire to face the best at all costs.
One could go back and ask aloud whether many of Golovkin’s opponents have actually, as Sanchez says, “earned their shot.” Not Willie Monroe Jr. Not welterweight Kell Brook. Not Nobuhiro Ishida. Not Osumanu Adama. (We could go on and on).
But, oh yeah, he had to fight no-hopers back then because nobody but no-hopers, damaged retreads, and career fall guys would consider facing his awesomeness. Forgive me for forgetting the Triple G talking points.
However, Sanchez is not all bad guy. He did offer some advice to Charlo in the quest to land a fight with a fighter on another level of stardom.
"[Charlo] needs to stay busy, stay fighting and stay relevant. Because when the time comes to fight the people have to know him."
Funny, but bigger stars were telling Golovkin pretty much the same thing for years and got branded cowards for it. Weird how that works, isn’t it?