Gennady Golovkin's Trainer Rips Canelo Alvarez's Power, Calls Him a 'Slapper'

Abel Sanchez, the trainer for unified middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin, told Yahoo Sports' Kevin Iole on Thursday that he's not impressed by Canelo Alvarez's punching power and considers him a "slapper." 

"Who has [Alvarez] knocked out that you could say, 'Yeah, that was a great KO of a guy who is tough to KO?'" Sanchez posited. 

"He's a slapper. He’s a slapper who throws very good, fast combinations. He’s going to have to do more than slap to keep Golovkin off of him."

Alvarez has won three of his last fight fights by knockout, but Sanchez wasn't impressed that he was able to send Amir Khan, Liam Smith and James Kirkland tumbling to the canvas. 

"Amir Khan was a lightweight and he got knocked out by [Breidis] Prescott," Sanchez said. "And you’re going to make it look like a huge deal that he hurt Kirkland? Kirkland hadn’t fought for two years and he gets hurt by everybody. [Nobuhiro] Ishida knocked him out."

All told, 34 of Alvarez's 49 career wins have come via knockout. That's an impressive KO rate, but it pales in comparison to Golovkin's.

The undefeated Golovkin has won 33 of his 37 fights by knockout. 

However, Golovkin's last outing against Daniel Jacobs didn't follow that script. 

Although he was able to secure a knockdown in Round 4, Golovkin had to settle for a unanimous-decision triumph at Madison Square Garden. 

Now firmly focused on his Sept. 16 title defense against Alvarez, Golovkin will attempt to get back on track and send Alvarez packing early with some flurries of his trademark haymakers.