Abel Sanchez Had a Very Pleasant Trip to Paris

Abel Sanchez, the veteran trainer best known for his nine-year run with Gennady Golovkin, was in Paris this weekend and had a very enjoyable time. Abel wasn’t there to sight-see, although for all we know he took a few selfies at the Eiffel Tower; he was there to see two of his fighters, junior middleweight Michel Soro and cruiserweight Arsen Goulamirian, win important fights and they accommodated him with impressive showings.

It’s been reported that 220 different languages are spoken in California. Sometimes it seems that all of them are spoken at The Summit, the name of Sanchez’s pine-scented compound in Big Bear Lake, California. Michel Soro is a Frenchman by way of the Ivory Coast where French is the official language. Arsen Goulamirian speaks French too — he resides in France when he’s not in Big Bear — but his native tongue is Albanian.

Soro (35-2-1, 24 KOs) was pitted against countryman Cedric Vitu, a solid pro who had won 47 of his 50 pro fights. Vitu was known as a durable sort, but it didn’t take long for Soro to break him down. Vitu was out on his feet when the referee waved it off in the fifth round.

Soro’s lone defeats came on the road in Croatia against Zaurbek Baysangurov who retired with a 29-1 record and to Argentina’s Bryan Castano who won a split decision over Soro in July of 2017 and then declined a rematch. The win over Vitu positions Soro for a match with Cuban-American veteran Erislandy Lara who shares a version of the WBA world title with Julian “J Rock” Williams.

Arsen Goulamirian (25-0, 17 KOs) had a less daunting assignment against 37-year-old Australian Kane Watts. Goulamirian dominated Watts from the get-go and brought the fight to a finish in round four when he put the Aussie down for the count with a left hook to the body.

Goulamirian was making his first start in 13 months. A fight with Denis Lebedev fell out when Lebedev retired (he would subsequently un-retire) and a fight with Beibut Shumenov fell out when Don King, who won the purse bid, wasn’t able to lock in a satisfactory venue.

The WBA, which throws around titles like confetti, recognizes Goulamirian and Shumenov as their world cruiserweight title-holders. A match between them may yet get re-kindled, but a more attractive option for Goulamirian would be a match with the winner of the forthcoming unification fight between Maris Breidis and the KO Doctor, Yunier Dorticos. Although not official yet, they will reportedly meet on Dec. 14 in Breidis’s hometown of Riga, Latvia. The fight will close the curtain on the second season of the World Boxing Super Series.

Whomever Soro and Goulamirian fight next, Abel Sanchez, who keeps his passport handy, will be there. Sanchez lost a lot of dough when Golovkin flew the coop, but he remains in heavy demand and is as busy as ever.

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While we’re talking cruiserweights, a fighter to keep an eye on is Jai Opetaia. The handsome 24-year-old Australian improved to 19-0 with his 15^th knockout today, stopping countryman Mark Flanagan (24-8) who was down twice before retiring after the eighth round. A six-foot-two southpaw of Samoan extraction, born in Sydney, Opetaia qualified for the 2012 Olympics at the age of 16, making him the youngest Australian boxer ever to achieve this distinction.

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