Abel Sanchez Calls Fight in 10th; Discusses Lawson and Golovkin

Legendary boxing trainer Abel Sanchez cornered his Team Summit welterweight Fredrick “General Okunka” Lawson on November 7th, 2015 as part of the Premier Boxing Championship on NBCSN at the Miccosukee Resort & Gaming casino in Miami, Florida.

Sanchez called the fight off in between the 10th and 11th rounds, as Lawson was well behind on the scorecards but more importantly looked to have suffered a broken jaw at the hands of opponent Kevin Bizier. The loss moved Lawson down to 24-2 and Bizier up to 26-2 in what was most likely a title contender elimination match.

Sanchez joined Boxeo Mundial after the match – and during the first few minutes of his 60th birthday – to talk about the night’s loss as well as his most prized pupil: Gennady “Triple G” Golovkin (34-0).

Happy Birthday and a huge thank-you to Coach Sanchez, who was gracious enough to speak even after he valiantly called the fight when he knew his fighter was in trouble.

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We fought a guy that put a lot of pressure on my guy, and my guy was not used to that. My guy was not experienced enough for that level. When I stopped the fight, I thought that his jaw was broken or dislocated. He’s a young kid; there’s no reason to let him go out for two more rounds with a broken jaw.

We were behind in the fight, it didn’t look like my guy was gonna be able to end it with one blow so there’s no reason for the fight to continue. So I stopped it in the 10th.

It’s not so much what Fredrick brings to the team – it’s what we can do with Fredrick. This fight came about because he’s the Number Two contender. Sometimes these organizations and managers move fighters up the rankings, and they’re not really ready for those levels. Even though Freddie had twenty-four wins and a lot of knock-outs, they were in Ghana.

The last three fights before this one, we had gone ten-twelve rounds. It just goes to show you that the experience that’s required here is garnered by doing that.

This guy that we fought has fought twice for the title I think; fought Jo Jo Dan a couple times and lost. Just the experience is what beat us today more than anything.

He wasn’t gonna win the fight, so there’s no reason to continue with a broken jaw. He was in terrible pain – in fact, he’s at the hospital now getting x-rayed and getting a pain shot.

We’re teaching them to box, but like I said sometimes the levels are… We’re not ready for a particular level. Freddy fought well, but just was not good enough.

With Freddy, like I said: twenty knockouts in Ghana against nondescript opponents doesn’t prepare him for this level that he’s elevated to because of his record. The organization brings him up to a Number Two or Number Three spot because he’s got a great record; not so much because of the guys he’s fought but because of the record, which doesn’t do well for the fighters that are not prepared for that level.

With Gennady, Gennady’s experience in the amateurs and Gennady’s work in the gym – when we’re able to show him how we want him to use the power and what part of the rounds we want him to use the power – it’s a little easier when you have that experience like the amateur experience that he had.

This is a game of chess in a way. It’s a game that you have to make sure that you out-think your opponent, you out-hustle your opponent.

But if brought along right – that’s gonna happen. If brought along in a hurry, then you’re gonna get the fights like we had tonight.

With Gennady and with a kid I have named Murat Gassiev (23-0) who’s fighting on the 21st and a kid on the 20th named (Konstantin) Ponomarev who’s 28-0, but he’s not being pushed in a hurry. He’s not at the top of the rankings yet, so we don’t have to fight the tough guys like Bizier.

Bizier’s a very experienced guy that comes to fight. He’s not great at anything but good at everything. He just out-hustled us. He came to fight.

Unfortunately the system – our government system – is not funding the kind of programs we had before. We haven’t got an amateur team, we haven’t got an Olympic team. Why? Because we’re not getting the funding from the Federal government to continue these programs that are gone keep kids off the street. That are gonna keep kids in some kind of program – whether it be boxing or gymnastics or dance or whatever.

And we’re not able to develop those good fighters like we used to. In ’76 and ’84 we had twelve, fourteen medals. We’ve had three or four in the last four Olympics, which is crazy. But that’s because we’re not breeding those – growing those – good fighters in the amateurs. And it’s unfortunate.

I don’t know what has to be done: maybe they’re gonna shame the government by not having Olympians. Shame them into funding something for – not only to keep them off the street – but to have some kind of pride. Whether it be boxing pride, gymnastics pride, whatever kind of pride it could be.