Hasim Rahman Jr is preparing for his upcoming bout against Jake Paul under the tutelage of trainer, Augie Sanchez, who is best known for being the last American to beat Floyd Mayweather. In 1996, Sanchez became one of the few fighters to defeat ‘TBE’ during his stellar amateur run when he outpointed the former pound-for-pound king at the US Olympic trials.
Sanchez lost his three other encounters with Mayweather, but the reputation stuck. After a five-year stint as a professional which saw the American challenge unsuccessfully for a world title on two occasions, Sanchez turned his attention to becoming a trainer.
‘Kid Vegas’ currently works with heavyweight contender Michael Hunter and is the former National Junior and Youth Head Coach for USA boxing. In 2018, he was awarded the Best Coach award at the Youth World Championships in Russia and now trains his own stable of professional boxers in Las Vegas with Rahman Jr recently added to the camp.
Talking about his link-up with the 12-1 professional boxer during an interview with FightHype.com, he said: “I’ve known Rah [Hasim Rahman Jr] for a lot of years and he came up to me and he wanted me to work with him – strategic gameplan for this fight and I took him on. It’s an honour to work with him and prepare him for this upcoming fight.”
Sanchez continued to talk about his rivalry with Mayweather, saying: “We fought four times. All four fights were great. I feel like the turnouts were reversed. I feel like he beat me the one time and I beat him the three times. But it is what it is, we both have mutual respect for one another, I always back Floyd no matter who he fights. We have a great relationship, we grew up together, we were roommates.
“When I first met Floyd, we were roommates like I said. In the room, I remember he always used to be shadow boxing and talking. But he was very confident, and I mean I knew he was good but I didn’t know he would become what he is now. But I mean it’s all in God’s hands and God had a plan for him and he executed it. God bless him and God bless all that he does.”
MORE BOXING NEWS…
Boxing tonight: Schedules, live streams, times, TV channels, odds
Julius Francis laughs at Tyson Fury comment as he discusses viral KO
Rahman Jr takes on Paul on August 6 at Madison Square Garden, live on Showtime PPV. Both men are extremely familiar with each other having sparred on multiple occasions.
In the co-feature bout, Amanda Serrano defends her WBO and WBC featherweight titles against Brenda Carabajal in her first outing since her barnburner with Katie Taylor.