by Rick Reeno

Abel Sanchez, the trainer of WBC/WBA/IBO/IBF middleweight champion Gennady 'GGG' Golovkin (35-0, 32KOs), believes the "catch-weight era" is finally over in the middleweight division.

The last time a WBC middleweight champion made a defense of the title at the full division limit of 160 was in April of 2013, when Sergio Martinez retained the belt with a close decision over Martin Murray.

From that moment, every fight involving the WBC middleweight belt has been contested at a catch-weight.

Miguel Cotto captured the WBC title from Martinez in June 2014 at a catch-weight of 159, and then retained it with a knockout of Daniel Geale at a catch-weight of 157. Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez captured the title last November from Cotto, at a catch-weight of 155. Canelo retained the title on May 7, at a catch-weight of 155, when he knocked out Amir Khan.

As reported earlier by BoxingScene.com, Canelo released an official statement which detailed his decision to vacate the WBC championship.

Golovkin, as hold of the WBC's interim-title at 160, has been officially elevated to the status of full champion.

With Golovkin obtaining the WBC belt, Sanchez is confident the run of catch-weight title fights is no longer going to plague the middleweight division.

"It's over, it's over. Now if there is a catch-weight, if there is no title involved, then there is no such thing as a catch-weight," Sanchez told BoxingScene.com. "Now we can go forward with Gennady and forget about all that mess that was created by Cotto and all those guys, and the catch-weights."

"The reason I called [Canelo] a diva was not because of his attitude inside the ring. He will fight anybody. I was calling him a diva because he was trying to restructure a boxing weight division. He was trying to structure his own weight division. It has nothing to do with my respect for him as a fighter. The only reason that comment came out was because he was trying to make his own division. Now that's over with, now Gennady goes in as champion."

According to Canelo, Golden Boy Promotions will continue to negotiate with Golovkin's team for a fall blockbuster on HBO Pay-Per-View.