By: Sean Crose
“I would like to announce that I have made a major decision for myself and for my career,” Gennady Golovkin informed the media on Wednesday. That decision? To break with longtime trainer Abel Sanchez, the Big Bear cornerman who many have felt led Golovkin to the pinnacle of the fight game. Golovkin went on to claim that he would announce who his new trainer will be at a later date. As for Sanchez, Golovkin essentially stated that he was thankful for all the man had done for him, but that it was simply for the best that he, Golovkin, move on.
A short time later, Sanchez himself responded to the the breakup. “After a great nine year run,” Sanchez claimed , “records set, and equaled, developing a Hall of Fame career and making it possible to sign a 6 fight $100 million with DAZN, he (Golovkin) proposed and insisted on an insulting new trainer compensation schedule.” Clearly bitter over this latest development, Sanchez went on to claim his “dignity and honor” would not allow him to indulge his former protege’s wishes. To Sanchez, the relationship with Golovkin ended because of GGG’s “being greedy, being ungrateful,” and having no “ethics, honor, or integrity.”
Seen as a kind of dynamic duo, Golovkin and Sanchez first joined forces in 2010. Since that time, Golovkin has earned a record of 20 wins, 1 loss, and 1 draw. The loss and draw, it should be added, were both delivered courtesy of Vegas judges in highly controversial fashion when Golovkin faced Canelo Alvarez for middleweight supremacy in 2017 and 2018 respectively. When Golovkin faces his next opponent, Steve Rolls, on June 8th at Madison Square Garden, it will be his first time fighting without Sanchez in his corner in almost a decade.
Golovkin teamed up with the DAZN streaming service back in March, to much ballyhoo. At the time, it seemed as if he and Sanchez were still close, as the trainer went so far as to comment on how his fighter, who was almost 37, was holding up as the years pass on. “I can only gauge in the fight,”Sanchez stated at the time. “There’s not anyone that has dominated him or in the gym. He’s fighting at his top level.” Someone may indeed prove that Golovkin is showing his age. Sanchez, however, will not be by the man’s side if and when it happens.
