Sanchez has respect for what Hopkins accomplished but said he was not as dominant at middleweight as Golovkin (34-0, 31 KOs) has been, noting that Hopkins’ biggest wins in the division came against smaller fighters who moved up in weight -- Felix Trinidad and Oscar De La Hoya.
“And Gennady is knocking everybody out,” Sanchez said. “We can all be critical of the opposition, but you can go back to Joe Louis, who had the ‘bum of the month club,’ or Larry Holmes or Mike Tyson. They didn’t have the best opposition either. But I don’t care who you’re fighting, if you win 15 middleweight title defenses, all by knockout, that’s a special place in history already. If he can get to 20 defenses, especially if he can get there all by knockout, that would be very special.
“And Gennady is knocking everybody out,” Sanchez said. “We can all be critical of the opposition, but you can go back to Joe Louis, who had the ‘bum of the month club,’ or Larry Holmes or Mike Tyson. They didn’t have the best opposition either. But I don’t care who you’re fighting, if you win 15 middleweight title defenses, all by knockout, that’s a special place in history already. If he can get to 20 defenses, especially if he can get there all by knockout, that would be very special.
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