By Allan Fox: Fighting Gennadiy Golovkin would be a “stupid” move on the part of Manny Pacquiao, says his old promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank. Arum has designs of his fighter Terence Crawford is the one that faces the Filipino star.

Arum thinks it’s “silly” for the former eight-division world champion Pacquiao (62-7-2, 39 KOs) to take a potentially risky fight with IBF middleweight champion Golovkin (40-1-1, 35 KOs).

Although Arum admits that the 38-year-old Golovkin is past his prime after 14 years as a professional, he still believes that it’s a dangerous fight for the 41-year-old Pacquiao to face him.

Arum isn’t looking at things from Pacquiao’s perspective, though. He’s reportedly interested in running for the president of the Philippines shortly, and it would play better for him among his fans at home if he were to take on Golovkin rather than WBO 147-pound champion Crawford (36-0 27 KOs).

Pacquiao has to gain in fighting Golovkin rather than Crawford:

Fighting GGG would be a bigger payday for Pacquiao, and there would be more to gain. Boxing fans will be highly interested in a Pacquiao vs. Golovkin fight. Although there would be interest in a Pacquiao-Crawford battle as well, but not to the extent as there would if Manny fought Golovkin
Getting beaten by Golovkin would be Less of a downside for Pacquiao than if he loses to Crawford, who is fighting in the same division. If Pacquiao gets knocked out by GGG, he won’t receive as much criticism as he would in losing to Crawford.
Pacquiao will look brave and heroic in taking on GGG. After all, Pacquiao would be moving up two divisions to face one of the biggest punchers in this era at 160.

Arum against Pacquiao facing Golovkin

“It’s a stupid fight,” Top Rank promoter Arum said to the Daily Mail on Pacquiao facing . ‘I know Golovkin appears to be over the hill, but it’s a fight that could be very dangerous for Pacquiao.

“He isn’t even a welterweight really let alone a middleweight,” said Arum of this 5’5 1/2″ Pacquiao. “His best fighting weight is 140. At 147, I think he’s pretty much outsized by all the good welterweights.”

The real thing to ask is whether Arum is against Pacquiao facing Golovkin because he wants the Filipino star to face his own fighter Crawford. It would be easier to buy into what Arum is saying if he didn’t have anything to gain by Pacquiao not fighting Golovkin. But the fact of the matter is, Arum stands to gain a lot by Pacquiao choosing to face the 32-year-old Crawford.

Arum has wanted Pacquiao to fight Crawford for many years, and he’s running out of time to make this fight happen. With Pacquiao on the doorsteps to retirement, it’s now or never for Arum.

It’s not a silly as Arum thinks it is for Pacquiao to fight Golovkin. It would be a move that would have a tremendous upside for Pacquiao if he were to win, and it would be one of the most significant achievements the sport has seen.

Up until recently, Golovkin was the #1 fighter in the 160-pound division. He lost a controversial 12 round decision to Canelo Alvarez in 2018. After Golovkin’s last fight against Sergiy Derevyanchenko last October, that cemented the reality that he’s no longer the #1 fighter at middleweight.

Golovkin both took and administered a beating in that fight against ‘The Technician’ Derevyanchenko.

Pacquiao vs. Crawford needs a site to put up the money

“I know he fought Keith Thurman, who had lost his desire to fight and had been out so long, but he would have a real test against Terence Crawford or Errol Spence…to go up any higher would be silly.’

“Manny is very interested in fighting Crawford but someone has got to put up the money and there’s got to be a site,” said Arum.

It’s not a good sign that Arum is complaining about none of the countries putting up the money to stage a fight between Pacquiao and Crawford. That’s not surprising.

Crawford hasn’t established himself as being a marketable fighter during his career due in part because of these factors:

Soft match-making
Fighting style – counter-puncher and highly defensive
Moving a lot rather than slugging the way fight fans prefer from the popular fighters
A non-trash talker. Crawford’s personality is reserved and retiring

Arum needs to understand that Crawford is not a big star worldwide like guys like Pacquiao and Anthony Joshua. Crawford has a fan base in his home state of Nebraska, but that’s about it. Even Golovkin isn’t a massive star around the world, but he’s a more prominent name than Crawford is.

The hurdle of the broadcast rights for a fight between GGG and Pacquiao would be challenging to overcome. Golovkin fights on DAZN, and for him and Manny to battle it out, they would need to do it on pay-per-view. DAZN doesn’t do pay-per-views.

Pacquiao has already accomplished what no other fighter has ever done before in winning eight-division world titles. But for Pacquiao to go up two weight classes and beat Golovkin, it would be a big deal.