Abel Sanchez is a Mexican-American boxing trainer. He is best known as the former coach of

Gennady Golovkin Gennadiy Gennadyevich Golovkin (; also spelled Gennady; born 8 April 1982), often known by his nickname "GGG" or "Triple G", is a Kazakhstani professional boxer. He has held multiple middleweight world championships, and is a two-time former u ...

, and has trained other boxers such as

Lupe Aquino Isaias Guadalupe "Lupe" Aquino (born 23 January 1963) is a Mexican former professional boxer who competed from 1981 to 1999 and held the WBC Light Middleweight title in 1987. Aquino, known as "Lupe", turned pro in 1981 and won the WBC light mi ...

Terry Norris Terry Norris may refer to: * Terry Norris (boxer) Terry Wayne Norris (born June 17, 1967) is an American former boxer, prizefighter and a three time world champion in the light-middleweight (super-welterweight) division. Originally from Lubbock ...

Murat Gassiev Murat Georgievich Gassiev (; ; born 12 October 1993) is a Russian former unified cruiserweight world champion, having held the IBF title from 2016 to 2018, and the WBA (Unified) title in 2018. Background Gassiev is from Vladikavkaz, the ca ...

, and

Arsen Goulamirian Arsen Goulamirian (; born 4 October 1987) is an Armenian-born French professional boxer. He previously held the World Boxing Association (WBA) (WBA (Super), Super version) Cruiserweight (boxing), cruiserweight title from 2019 to 2024, having pre ...

Early life

Sanchez was born in

Tijuana, Mexico Tijuana is the most populous city of the Mexican state of Baja California, located on the northwestern Pacific Coast of Mexico. Tijuana is the municipal seat of the Tijuana Municipality, the hub of the Tijuana metropolitan area and the most popu ...

in 1955 and immigrated to San Marin, California with his family at the age of six.

Boxing trainer

The first three boxers he trained,

, and Orlin Norris, all became world champions. He went on to train other world champions during the 1990s, including Miguel Ángel González,

Paul Vaden Paul Vaden (born December 29, 1967) is an American former professional boxer who competed from 1991 to 2000, holding the IBF light middleweight title in 1995. He remains the only native San Diegan to become a professional world boxing champion. ...

, Frans Botha, and

Nana Konadu Nana Yaw Konadu Yeboah (born February 15, 1964) is a Ghanaian former professional boxer who competed from 1985 to 2001. He is a world champion in two weight classes, having held the World Boxing Council (WBC) super-flyweight title from 1989 to 1 ...

Summit Gym and later career

In 2000, he built a house in Big Bear, California to conduct fighters' training camps. The house, which is nicknamed ''The Summit'', was initially intended for Sanchez's friend and famed trainer

Emanuel Steward Emanuel "Manny" Steward (July 7, 1944 – October 25, 2012) was an American boxer, trainer, and commentator for HBO Boxing. Known as "the godfather of Detroit boxing," Steward trained 41 world champion fighters throughout his career, mos ...

to use to conduct training camps and was built at altitude in order to help athletes improve their

aerobic conditioning Aerobic conditioning is the use of continuous, rhythmic movement of large muscle groups to strengthen the heart and lungs ( cardiovascular system), as well as changes to the skeletal muscles. Improvement in aerobic conditioning occurs when athlete ...

. However, the training center remained largely unused while Sanchez recovered from a heart attack in 2001. This changed when

Oscar De La Hoya Oscar De La Hoya ( , ; born February 4, 1973) is an American Promoter (entertainment), boxing promoter and former professional boxing, professional boxer who competed from 1992 to 2008. His accolades include winning 11 list of boxing sextuple ch ...

rented it to prepare for his 2008

bout Bout can mean: People *Viktor Bout, suspected arms dealer *Jan Everts Bout, early settler to New Netherland *Marcel Bout Musical instruments * The outward-facing round parts of the body shape of violins, guitars, and other stringed instrume ...

with

Manny Pacquiao Emmanuel Dapidran Pacquiao Sr. ( ; ; born December17, 1978) is a Filipino politician, businessman, and professional boxer. Nicknamed "PacMan", he is widely regarded as one of the greatest professional boxers of all time. He previously serv ...

. Shortly afterwards, Sanchez met with

and returned to training after being impressed with Golovkin's talent. Sanchez and Golovkin split after nine years due to a money row following Golovkin's $100m deal with

DAZN DAZN (; pronounced "da zone") is a British Over-the-top media service, over-the-top sports Sports broadcasting, streaming and entertainment platform. Founded in 2007 as Perform Group via the merger of Premium TV Limited and Inform Group, it is o ...

. Since then, he's worked with other active boxers like

Sullivan Barrera Sullivan Barrera (born 25 February 1982) is a Cuban professional boxer. As an amateur, he won the middleweight gold medal at the 2000 AIBA Junior World Championships. He challenged once for the WBA light heavyweight title in 2018. Amateur car ...

, Denis Shafikov,

Michel Soro Michel Soro (born 30 October 1987) is an Ivorian-French professional boxer. He challenged for the WBO and IBO light middleweight titles in 2012, and the WBA interim super welterweight title in 2017. At regional level, he held the EBU Euro ...

Alfredo Angulo Alfredo Angulo López (born August 11, 1982) is a Mexican professional boxer who held the WBO interim light middleweight title from 2009 to 2010. As an amateur he represented Mexico at the 2004 Olympics, reaching the first round of the middlewe ...

, Joe Joyce and

Recognition

In 2015, Sanchez won the Futch-Condon, an award given by the

Boxing Writers Association of America Boxing is a combat sport and martial art. Taking place in a boxing ring, it involves two people – usually wearing protective equipment, such as protective gloves, hand wraps, and mouthguards – throwing punches at each other for a ...

to honor the best trainer of the year.

Other ventures

Sanchez owned and operated a construction company until 2008.

References

American boxing trainers Mexican boxing trainers Living people Sportspeople from Tijuana People from Big Bear Lake, California 1955 births Mexican emigrants to the United States {{Mexico-boxing-bio-stub