Gennadiy Golovkin’s old mentor Abel Sanchez has passed on precious advice to heavyweight contender Roney Hines

Roney Hines has revealed how Gennadiy Golovkin’s mentor passed on a few of his training secrets after the American heavyweight headed to GGG’s old lair.

The unbeaten 25-year-old has been sparring at Abel Sanchez’s remote gym called ‘The Summit’, situated on the Big Bear Mountain in California, where Golovkin regularly practised his brutal power before devastating world middleweight title victories.

Sanchez and Golovkin parted company in 2019, months after the Kazakh star’s defeat by Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez, but the respected trainer still passes on his experience to a number of contenders, including Hines who faces Dell Long in his 10th professional fight on Saturday.

What were your first impressions of The Summit?

I’m thinking like, I can’t breathe! How am I going to make it up there?

But I stayed up there for a week. I didn’t get really used to it until I was about to leave.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BvSAXLHnBMb/

A post shared by Gennadiy Golovkin | GGG (@gggboxing)

Can you understand why Golovkin trained there?

It’s a great place and Abel Sanchez is a great coach, a very humble and kind person.

It’s a perfect boxing gym. You don’t have to worry about extra things, extra people. It’s very remote. Even if you want to run up and down the street, people don’t bother you. It’s so quiet, it makes you want to focus.

What is Sanchez’s coaching style like?

Abel Sanchez is great to work with. He likes to slide in his jokes. He’s not one of those coaches where you have to worry about whether he’s mad today. He’s always the same – cool, calm, and collected – and always got a joke up his sleeve.

He’s very cool and he knows what he’s talking about. He can tell you something and break it down for you.

Did he pass on any expert advice?

My workout routine, all my life, I’ve been fairly tall, but I never really stretch. He told me, ‘You need to stretch because of this,’ he gave me a pole, like a stick, and helped me stretch with it.

He was like: ‘You need to keep your muscles as slim as possible, as long as possible.’

He also taught me – I’ve only seen people like GGG do it too – the neck exercises on the ring.

He would tell me, ‘A coach can tell you to do it, but it’s up to you. You’re the one that’s got to get in this ring. If there’s a five per cent chance that it helps you, that’s a five per cent chance that you can be better in the ring.’

It was a learning experience, a great experience.

You sparred with Dominic Breazeale?

I call him ‘Heavy hand Dom’ because he weighs a good 30lbs more than me, but his punches, he turns them over perfectly. He rolls with the punches and has veteran moves.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CKagbcRBhkV/

A post shared by Roney “Too Much” Hines (@roneytoomuchhines)

Breazeale, when he lands, you can feel his weight behind it. His punches make you tired. I think Breazeale is going to overcome Otto Wallin.

Will we see a destructive win this weekend?

I feel like I’m sharper. On Saturday, I will be putting on an extraordinary performance. I’ve got the speed, I’m agile, I’m very athletic. I bring it all.

Roney Hines

What do you make of Britain’s top two heavyweights?

Solely on last performances, I believe Tyson will come out with the win, because you can’t take Tyson Fury’s heart away from him. He is going to do whatever he plans to do in that ring.

Joshua against Ruiz showed that you can take Joshua’s heart away from him. You can make him doubt.

Tyson, he’s not a big puncher, but he’s a smooth boxer. He can slip and move. Joshua is more of an action figure fighter. Don’t get me wrong, he can fight. He’s a good fighter, but it’s experience.

Could we see you face a British rival in the future?

Oh, for sure. As long as the opportunity presents itself. Any time, anywhere in Britain or my back yard.

I would love to fight in Britain, or against a top heavyweight from over there. I actually have got a lot of good fans from Britain.

Source: Read Full Article