Greg Leon: Coach, I want to be like you when I grow up, to be able to tell a fighter like Gennady Golovkin (pictured) who just signed a nine-figure deal that cutting my pay by 80% ain't going to work for me even though it's still six figures. You said bye-bye. Abel Sanchez: "And it had to be that, it's unfortunate. I wouldn't be able to sleep with myself." GL: So you were getting 10% [of Golovkin's purses, which is standard for a trainer] and now he gets that big DAZN deal and decides it's time to chop your slice down big time?  Abel Sanchez: "He gets a $100M deal and nobody deserves to be paid and nobody did anything I guess."

 

GL: Where do you think all of this came from? You've had this kid for nine years, if this was who he was chances are it would've happened sooner, like before or after the first Canelo fight for instance.

 

AS: "Two or three months ago we read about him being in a lawsuit with his old managers who all of a sudden were no longer his managers for whatever the reason. Somebody told me earlier today that they read an article where his wife is going to be in charge of the management situation and wants to be in charge of the management situation, so I have to assume that was part of it. Are you married? If you're married you know what that's like, you've got to live with that person day in and day out and maybe that had something to do with it I don't know."

 

GL: Living with your wife doesn't make her Egis Klimas..

 

AS: "Very true, but sometimes people look out for their family and don't give a shit about anybody else's family."

 

GL: In your opinion do you think they made this offer knowing that you would turn it down, or do you think they genuinely wanted you to proverbially eat it to stay on board?

 

AS: "I don't think it really mattered to them. It doesn't matter because we've done very well to this point and they were more concerned about how much I was making, instead of looking at it for what it is, the more I make the more you make. I think at this stage of it, obviously he's at the tail end of his career, at the end of it and maybe he thinks that anybody could work the corner. It's hard to try to decipher really because I was blindsided. I've had a lot of fighters, but I've would have never expected this from this kid, never!"

 

GL: Do you think GGG considers himself a finished product so it's about whatever capable trainer he could get to take it for the least amount money is at this point? 

 

AS: "Rationalizing it, we were more like a family these last nine years and if you don't pay it to your coach you're going to pay it to Uncle Sam. I was honestly blindsided and in this business, and you know it well, the one who spends the most time with the athlete is the only one on the team that isn't protected by a contract, and that's the coach."

 

GL: What were you looking for in the counter proposal that you sent them?

 

AS: "I was asking for a little less than half of what I was making before. I thought that I put too much time in, I put too much effort in, I've sacrificed a lot for this young man and I didn't want that tarnished. I honestly didn't want him to get the bad press that I'm reading right now, I didn't want that."

 

GL: You used the word family, I imagine the emotional investment you've put in makes this a very difficult situation. I imagine you were looked at as some sort of figure, a big brother, an uncle figure.

 

AS: "He looked to me as a father figure because his father died four or five years ago. I was kind of like the older, wiser fellow in his life. Of all the fighters I've been around I never expected it from this kid. We've had so many conversations about what other fighters were doing and how he would never do things like this because his team and his family were the most important thing in his life, I really never expected this. 

 

(Editors Note: This is a very emotional moment for Sanchez and you could feel his hurt through the phone and we cut the interview off at this point.)