'He was a runner': Sanchez says Canelo Alvarez turned into Floyd Mayweather against Gennady Golovkin

Trainer Abel Sanchez has claimed that Gennady Golovkin turned Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez into Floyd Mayweather Jr during the duo's hotly-anticipated first encounter last year and evidently believes the onus is on his compatriot to alter his tactics in order to deliver the explosive style of fight expected from the world's two premier middleweights.

WBA (Super), WBC, IBF, and IBO title-holder Triple G, and The Ring and Lineal champion Canelo, are set to compete in a world title rematch at Las Vegas' T-Mobile Arena on 5 May - Cinco de Mayo weekend - after an initial closely-fought, tactical battle between the pair at the same venue in September 2017 ended in a controversial split decision draw that led to widespread criticism of judge Adalaide Byrd.

Many felt that Golovkin did enough to win the bout in Nevada, with his rival, a vaunted counter-puncher, producing plenty of movement and defensive tactics in order to attempt to neutralise the Kazakh's concussive power and crippling body shots and avoid becoming embroiled in a slugfest.

Speaking to On The Ropes Boxing Radio in the extended run-up to that Spring rematch, Sanchez claimed that his fighter was ready for such an approach and likened Canelo's evasive "running" strategy to that previously employed by Mayweather, who outwitted the Mexican in September 2013 to hand him the only loss of his 52-fight professional career to date.

"He was prepared for that last time, he won," Sanchez said of Golovkin, per Boxing Scene. "It would have been a more convincing win if Canelo had stopped a little bit. But remember, Golovkin has 350 amateur fights, he's seen everything in the ring.

"Canelo surprised the fight fans after talking all that smack, he was a runner. Canelo turned into Floyd. [Conor] McGregor turned Floyd into a Mexican and Golovkin turned Canelo into a Floyd.

"It behooves Canelo - with as much talking as he's doing this far away from the fight about his legacy and how he's going to be remembered - to at least make it a fight. If he makes it a fight, who knows what can happen.

"When Canelo sat down, he was effective in the first fight, he just didn't do it because he knew he'd get knocked out. If he does it more, maybe we get the kind of fight that we were expecting, and maybe Canelo hits hard enough to hurt Golovkin, but you're never going to find out by back pedaling and running.

"Canelo needs to do what he's saying and then anything can happen, they are both big punchers and one shot can turn a fight around."

Sanchez does not believe that the formidable Golovkin will feel under any additional pressure to secure his 34th knockout in just 39 pro fights in order to avoid a repeat of that controversial September result and is not expecting either man to make any drastic changes before the second installment.