Roach: Pacquiao had no idea who Golovkin was when he visited the Wildcard Gym

By Chris Williams: WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin recently visited the Wildcard Gym in Los Angeles, California to see WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao. Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach says that Pacquiao had no idea who Golovkin was during the visit.

Pacquiao didn’t realize that he was meeting the fighter who arguably is the best pound-for-pound fighter on the planet. Golovkin recently said he’d like to fight Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. at 154 if they were up for it. This is a weight class that both fighters have fought at before so it wouldn’t be a great ordeal for them to meet him at this weight.

Roach didn’t volunteer Pacquiao to fight Golovkin. Instead, Roach suggested that Golovkin move up to 168 to fight WBA super middleweight champion Andre Ward instead of Pacquiao moving up to 154 to fight Golovkin.

“Manny wins this [fight against Mayweather] and he will be king of the world,” says Roach via the Dailymail.co.uk. “And he will deserve the roar of the people. But Triple G is the best pound-for-pound boxer on the planet right now. Manny doesn’t watch boxing. Of course he was as courteous as always but be had no idea who this visitor was. Golovkin is the pound-for-pound man of the moment and he’ll get the chance to show it if ever Andre Ward agrees to meet him.”

At the end of the day, I see Mayweather volunteering to fight Golovkin at 154 in the future before he retires. It would be the crowning finish of Mayweather’s career for him to move up to middleweight and beat the best fighter in the division.

I could see Mayweather turning down a catch-weight and just going up to 160 to fight Golovkin at his best weight so that he can get credit for the win afterwards. If Mayweather were to fight Golovkin at 154, he wouldn’t get any credit for beating him because boxing fans would say that Golovkin was too weak from having lost six pounds of weight to get down to the catch-weight limit.

If Pacquiao beats Mayweather then Golovkin will still be there for Pacquiao to fight at a catch-weight of 152. If Pacquiao was willing to fight Miguel Cotto in 2012 at 150, then he should be open to fighting Golovkin at a catch-weight. Ideally, Pacquiao needs to fight Golovkin at 154 like Mayweather fought Cotto at 154 in 2012 without a catch-weight. Mayweather wanted Cotto to be comfortable at the weight.