After Gennady 'GGG' Golovkin scored another knockout, he continues to chase Canelo Alvarez in his quest to hold all the middleweight titles.
Golovkin scored his 22nd straight knockout and has not heard the final bell of fight since 2008. He knocked out Dominic Wade in the second round in what appeared to be an easy fight.
Thus, the pressure falls on Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez again, as he faces Amir Khan on May 7. If he wins, he will only have 15 days to negotiate with Golovkin's camp as he is the mandatory challenger and come to an agreement within 30 days. If not, Alvarez has to give up the green belt as per WBC rules.
But there is still a major obstacle to the fight, the Amir Khan bout notwithstanding. Canelo continues to insist on fighting Golovkin at the 155 lb catch weight. This has spawned the ire of Golovkin's trainer Abel Sanchez, who called Canelo a "diva" on Fight Hype (h/t Boxing News 24).
"It has nothing to do with Canelo. He has the belt," said Sanchez. "If Canelo decides to grow some and be a middleweight, then we'll fight. Yes, he is a diva for wanting to change the sport we all love, and we all respect those guys for stepping through the ropes. When you make a weight that is not in any division. We have 17 weight divisions right now. You're acting like a Diva. That's why I said that."
Sanchez also declared that Golovkin won't come down at ounce of 160 lbs because that is the weight for the middleweight belt. In Sanchez words, they "won't bow down to a diva." They only want the belt because GGG wants to unify the middleweight titles.
In a different interview, this time with Yahoo Sports, Sanchez blamed Oscar De La Hoya, Alvarez' promoter, for stalling the negotiations.
"I believe Canelo is a warrior, but the business of boxing sometimes supersedes everything," said Sanchez, and added that De La Hoya is obviously the obstacle: "Who else could it be?"
He also complained that the conditions on weight are "ridiculous." "There are weight divisions for a reason, and there comes a point when it gets ridiculous," Sanchez said. "Gennady wants to equal Bernard Hopkins' record for middleweight defenses. He wants to be the greatest in his division. He doesn't want to fight at Canelo-weight. He is a middleweight, and if Canelo wants to be a middleweight champion, so should he."
The GGG camp also expressed interest in taking the WBO belt from Billy Joe Saunders.