By: Jeandra Lebeauf
While the animus between Canelo Alvarez and Gennady Golovkin remains constant, at least one issue between them has been resolved prior to Saturday night’s showdown. Canelo’s choice of boxing glove.
Boxingscene.com reports that both camps met on Wednesday night to resolve glove selection issue and announce their final selections. Gloves became a point of contention for Golovkin’s team when they were informed that Canelo intended to wear gloves, a style designed by his team to include extra padding, that had never been worn in a championship fight. Golovkin’s trainer Abel Sanchez told ESPN Deportes he feared the gloves could break, giving Canelo extra time to recover.
“Notice that they were gloves that had never been used in a championship fight,” Sanchez said to ESPN Deportes about Canelo’s new gloves that he wanted to wear.” We did not feel it was fair to use them because they had not been tested. We do not know if they are going to break. Imagine that they break in the third round and then Canelo takes advantage to recover or take a break,” Sanchez said.
Alvarez will instead wear the style he wore in their initially match, the Japanese brand, Winning. Golovkin will once again wear the same model Grant brand gloves he wore previously. A glove Canelo’s team has no objection to. Gomez goes on to say he hopes there aren’t any other major issues ahead of Saturday.
“I hope not, you never know with Abel (Sanchez). He brings up things, whether it’s a strategy to distract or disrupt ‘Canelo’ and his camp or whether it’s just the way he is. For the most part we really took our time and looked at every piece for the fight.”
“Any concerns they had from the first fight, I think we’ve addressed everything, from the officials, the referee. All that stuff. ”
The gloves resolution eliminates one of numerous points of contention between the camps which include gloves, hand-wraps, lack of co-promotional events and zero face-offs. Sanchez recently made headlines when he said Canelo’s stacking method of wrapping his hand was illegal. That claim was later refuted by the Nevada State Athletic Commission.