Trainer Sanchez treats his boxers like family

LAS VEGAS: Gennady Golovkin has never been on the Las Vegas boxing stage before, but thankfully for the three- belt middleweight champion his trainer Abel Sanchez is no stranger to the spotlight.

The 62- year- old, who runs “The Summit” gym in the San Bernardino Mountains, has trained 17 championship fighters and in 2015 was named trainer of the year by the Boxing Writers Association of America.

Sanchez will be in Golovkin’s corner on Saturday night at the sold- out T-Mobile arena when the Kazakhstan fighter faces Mexico’s number one star Canelo Alvarez for middleweight supremacy.

Sanchez was already one of boxing’s top trainers before Golovkin walked into his Big Bear, California gym.

Sanchez was well known back in the 1980s and 1990s when he guided future boxing hall of famer Terry Norris to stardom. He also piloted Paul Vaden, Miguel Angel Gonzalez and Lupe Aquino to world titles.

“I have had to retire four guys in my career. I won’t let them get beat up. Sometimes they leave and go to other guys. I like to win,” Sanchez said.

Sanchez is back on top after joining forces with Golovkin seven years ago and in that time he has nurtured him from a raw talent to an explosive knockout artist.

Under Sanchez’s tutelage Golovkin has developed one of the sport’s biggest knockout ratios at 89 percent. This will be the undefeated Golovkin’s Las Vegas debut.

Sanchez says few people outside of boxing know what it takes to develop a champion boxer.

“The struggle we trainers go through, you couldn’t imagine,” he said Thursday at the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino.

“The time and money and effort we spend with these kids is more than we spend with our families.

“And to be at this level there is a reason why we are here. It is because we struggled and we paid our dues.” — AFP