By Chris Williams: In recent months, Floyd Mayweather Jr. has been mentioning IBF/IBO/WBA middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin’s name quite a big to the media, and one gets the sense that if Mayweather does choose to come back to the sport in 2016 or 2017, he’s almost surely going to be selecting the Kazahstan fighter to go after his 50th win.

Mayweather has always been the type of fighter who wants to get the biggest name possible for his fights, and there’s none bigger than Golovkin right now. Mayweather wouldn’t be able to shake up the boxing world if he were to return to the sport to fight the likes of Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, Amir Khan, Keith Thurman, Kell Brook or Manny Pacquiao.

While those are all perfectly suitable opponents for Maywether to fight for his 50th win, they’re not big enough names for Mayweather to bring in a huge number of pay-per-view buys on Showtime or HBO. The only man that can do that is Golovkin.

If Mayweather waits until Golovkin has beaten Canelo later this year, then it’ll be perfectly setup for Mayweather to swoop in and take the Golovkin fight at the full weight for the middleweight division to capture all of his world titles.

Golovkin’s trainer Abel Sanchez believes that Mayweather wants to return to the sport for the Golovkin fight. Sanchez sees Mayweather waiting for the exact right time to come back and take the Golovkin fight.

Sanchez thinks that Mayweather is mentioning Golovkin’s name frequently in order to test the interest in a fight with him with the media. By Mayweather watching the reaction to his comments from boxing fans and people in the media, he’s able to judge just how much interest there is in that fight. Like a good businessman, Mayweather can then decide whether he should make a return to the sport for the Golovkin fight or for a fight against another opponent.

Recently, Mayweather mentioned Terence Crawford in the media, and received a lot of attention from boxing fans. However, it wasn’t comparable to the amount of attention Mayweather has received each time he’s brought up Golovkin’s name. It’s smart of Mayweather to do that, because he’ll know just how much interest a fight against Golovkin will receive if he comes back and selects him for a fight at the full weight for the middleweight division.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeuiURyIhj0

Mayweather isn’t the type that ask for weight handicaps for his fights, so you can expect him to take the Golovkin fight at the full 160lbs for the middleweight division rather than at a catch-weight of 155lbs, like we’re seeing with Canelo Alvarez.

Mayweather would want to receive full credit for a win over Golovkin. He wouldn’t want to cheapen his win by asking for a catch-weight handicap like we’ve seen from Manny Pacquiao during portions of his career.

Mayweather is only 39 right now, but he’s fighting like someone 29. He just hasn’t aged like other fighters. I would favor Mayweather over Golovkin if that fight comes off. Mayweather is too fast and too elusive for the slow-footed/slow handed Golovkin to deal with him. This might even be easier for Mayweather than his fights against Canelo and Marcos Maidana, because Golovkin is so wide open when he fights. I think Mayweather would clown Golovkin and make him look really bad. He would be exposed by Mayweather.