By Sean Jones: Mikey Garcia says Manny Pacquiao should move up to 160 to take on the top fighters up there or stay at 147 to face Terence Crawford. Without mentioning Gennady Golovkin’s name, Mikey feels that a win for Pacquiao over a top middleweight would be a considerable achievement.
Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach said recently that Manny might want to go for greatness by fighting Golovkin (40-1-1, 35 KOs), but he would prefer that he face Mikey. A win for Pacquiao over GGG would be his crowning achievement in his career. That would be on par with what Sugar Ray Leonard did in moving up to middleweight to defeat champion Marvin Hagler.
According to Mikey, Pacquiao hasn’t spoken to him recently, and he’s not sure which direction he’s going to go in. Mikey thinks Pacquiao, 41, might even retire from boxing without fighting again.
That’s hard to believe, given that Pacquiao has been working out lately on the heavy bag, and he looks like he’s staying in shape to resume his career.
Mikey picks Pacquiao over Crawford
“Him [Pacquiao] and Crawford? I saw the Instagram post and Twitter stuff,” said Mikey to Fighthype. “I think that would be a big fight for both. Manny Pacquiao, at his age, he’s already proved to everybody just by beating Keith Thurman.
“People are like, ‘Wow!’ They were surprised that it happened the way it did. I think Crawford has all the skills and talent to make it an awkward, difficult fight for Pacquiao based on his height, reach, and IQ. I think that’s going to be a great fight for both.
“Pacquiao, can he do it one more time? Beating Thurman, can he do it again back to back against Crawford? Or is he know finally too old to do it? That’s the question. I would probably still side with Manny.
“A little while ago, I would have thought Crawford would win, but after seeing him beat Thurman, I kind of lean towards Manny, and only because what I’ve seen with Thurman.
“Prior to that, I would say, ‘No problem,'” said Mikey in predicting a win for Pacquiao over Crawford.
That’s not going to make Crawford and his promoter Bob Arum too happy hearing Mikey say Pacquiao could beat him. It’s undoubtedly realistic given Crawford’s weak resume, and how badly he performed in his last fight against Egidijus Kavaliauskas last December.
Crawford got hurt by Kavaliauskas, who isn’t one of the elite-level 147-pound fighters.
Pacquiao should go for Golovkin fight
“He’s already fought at 154 or right at 154,” said Mikey about Pacquiao’s chances if he moves up in weight. “So if he wants to fight some of the bigger guys and make them come down to 156 or 154, he might be able to pull it off.
“He’s done it all, so why not? I wouldn’t be surprised. F*** it. Do it,” said Mikey when asked if Pacquiao could go up to 160 to fight. “Go for it. He’s already a legend as it is.
“He’ll only be greater if he accomplishes something like that. That would undeniably be one of the biggest achievements in boxing,” said Mikey on Pacquiao.
If Pacquiao wants to create the most amount of noise with his career, he’ll take on Golovkin and try and pull off a major victory. Golovkin is already planning on fighting Kamil Szeremeta next, and he’s likely to fight Canelo Alvarez in May of next year.
Unless Pacquiao can get a fight with GGG at the tail end of 2020, he might not get a chance to face him until after he faces Canelo next year.
Fighting without fans doesn’t interest Mikey
“I think I’d rather wait, but who knows?” said Mikey Garcia to when asked if he’d be interested in fighting behind closed doors. “They might allow some fans, a certain amount of fans in the arenas, and maybe half or a third of the fans.
“If we can do something like that, that might be better than no fans. I might be able to entertain something like that, but I would prefer to have fans there. I’m not sure if boxing is going to be back at that point by the end of the year, where all the fans are allowed again in the arenas.
“I don’t know. If it is, I would love to fight before the end of the year. I would like to fight again. But I think things are slowly learning in that direction. They might take a little longer to get there, and if it takes a little bit longer, then we’re going to have to wait,” said Mikey.
The guys that Mikey wants to fight, he can’t afford to face them behind closed doors. Pacquiao isn’t going to fight without fans, and that’s the guys that Mikey badly wants.
Mikey will need to take on someone good if he wants to fight on pay-per-view because he can’t drag out Jessie Vargas-type guys and experts fan to want to pay for that.
The good news is Mikey probably won’t need to wait too much longer before crowds are let back into boxing events. However, if a second wave of the virus hits in the fall, then the sport might go into a second lockdown. That would wreck Mikey’s chances of fighting for the remainder of 2020.
Garcia still wants Pacquiao fight
“We haven’t discussed anything,” said Mikey when asked if he’s been talking to Manny Pacquiao about a fight. “Everything got put on hold. That would be my number one and target to go after, but we have no clue.
“Originally, we talked about it, and he seemed excited about it. Now with all that’s happened, who knows? He might want to take something else, and he might want to fight someone else.
“I think he might just decide to retire. And I don’t know. I have no control over what he decides to do. But if he’s still available by the time boxing resumes, then I would definitely be excited about a fight with him,” said Mikey on fighting Pacquiao.
If Pacquiao was interested in fighting Mikey, he would have said something by now. What hurts Mikey’s chances of getting the Pacquiao fight is the fact that he’s done nothing at the welterweight level since moving up. Mikey lost to Errol Spence Jr in 2019, and he looked terrible in that fight.
Since that loss, Mikey has beaten Jessie Vargas, who is a shell of his former self at this point. Mikey could have impressed fans if he’d taken on a good contender like Thurman, Vergil Ortiz Jr, Yordenis Ugas, or Shawn Porter.
Mikey would have a hard time beating any of those guys, which is probably why he’s not attempted to fight any of them.
