By Allan Fox: Manny Pacquiao could be looking to make history in going after his ninth division world title against IBF middleweight champion Gennady ‘GGG’ Golovkin. For that fight to happen, Pacquiao, 41, will need to overrule his reluctant trainer Freddie Roach, who wants no part in the Filipino star moving up to 160 to take on GGG.
Golovkin has said in the past that he would come down to 154 for certain fights. Maybe this is one that he would be willing to sacrifice a little weight. GGG said this before he had a massive contract with DAZN.
With Golovkin’s current contract, he can take easy fights against the like of Steve Rolls and Kamil Szeremeta without needing to take risks. As such, Golovkin probably won’t agree to cut weight to fight Pacquiao at 154, even though it’s a fight that would generate enormous interest and make him famous.
Pacquiao will be the underdog
Manny would be a significant underdog against Golovkin, but that would make the fight thrilling to watch. The fans like it when Pacquiao is the underdog in his matches. Not even Floyd Mayweather Jr. ever dared to take on Golovkin. When Mayweather fought Canelo Alvarez, he did it when he was a youngster at age 22, and he had him boil down to 152. Mayweather didn’t fight Canelo in his prime.
Pacquiao will be going out with a bang if he takes on Golovkin because no one else at 147 has shown interest in doing that. After what happened to Kell Brook in his fight with GGG, no other welterweight has dared going up to middleweight to challenge him.
Manny would be showing a tremendous amount of guts to face Golovkin, and that in itself would be a victory.
If Pacquiao wants to make history before he hangs up his gloves, he can do that by taking on the highly popular Golovkin. Roach wants Pacquiao to take on soft touches at this point in his career, but they do anything for his legacy.
For Pacquiao to make history, he needs to win his ninth division world title against someone like GGG or Canelo Alvarez (53-1-2, 36 KOs).
GGG the perfect guy for Pacquiao
The speed and lightning-fast footwork of Pacquiao would make it difficult for Golovkin to land his harder shots in a fight like this. Welterweight Kell Brook gave Golovkin fits in their battle four years ago in 2016, and that was against a younger GGG. If Pacquiao desires to win his ninth division strap, Golovkin is made to order for him.
The Kazakhstan fighter is slow, old, and a weak counter puncher. Also, Golovkin’s foot speed isn’t what it needs to be for him to catch up to Manny.
Roach prefers that Pacquiao take a safe fight against the smallish 5’6″ welterweight contender Mikey Garcia (40-1, 30 KOs), a fighter with a 1-1 record since moving up to 147. Manny’s grizzled trainer Roach fears that he may want to dare to be great by moving up to 160 to challenge the 38-year-old Golovkin for his IBF 160-pound title.
The fight that Roach wants Pacquiao to take against the 32-year-old Mikey will make far less money and do much less in terms of creating interest by fans. It’s a safer fight for Pacquiao and the more winnable one. The closest thing that Pacquiao has come to fighting an opponent with the size of Golovkin was his matches against Antonio Margarito and Jeff Horn.
The 5’10” Margarito fought Pacquiao in a catchweight fight at 150 2013, and he beat him. It wasn’t an easy fight for Pacquiao, but he dominated Antonio and ended up with the ‘W.’ In Pacquiao’s fight against Horn in 2017, he was roughed up and beaten by a 12 round majority decision in Brisbane, Australia. The results were controversial, though.
Pacquiao might want to fight GGG
“Manny, he doesn’t want to beat just anybody, he wants to fight the top guys,” Roach said to Chris Mannix at DAZN. “Mikey Garcia, I think that’s a good fight for him, of course.
“Manny might want to go a little bit higher and fight GGG or one of those guys who’s supposed to be the best guy in the world today because Pacquiao still desires to be the best there is,” said Roach.
Mikey isn’t a top guy at 147. He’s a contender with a 1-1 record since moving up to 147, and he was already embarrassed by Errol Spence last year. The only guys that can earn Pacquiao respect from the boxing world are the top elite fighters. If Pacquiao takes on Golovkin, he would be going beyond the call of duty. That’s a fighter
Welterweight champions Errol Spence and Terence Crawford both want to fight Pacquiao in 2020, but it remains to be seen whether he’ll go in that direction.
It’s believed that Pacquiao might choose to follow Roach’s advice by taking on Mikey Garcia because the casual boxing fans have an interest in seeing those two fight. In other words, it’s an easy money fight for Pacquiao. He can make a lot of money fighting a guy that shouldn’t be fighting at 147 in Mikey.
Pacquiao has the footwork, hand speed, and the fighting style to beat the 38-year-old Golovkin. Although the 41-year-old Pacquiao is three years older than GGG, he’s fighting at a higher level, faster and a lot more elusive than him.
Pacquiao would be a risky fight for Golovkin to take because he’s gotten slower recently, and he would have a difficult time trying to land his shots.
Roach not in favor of Pacquiao fighting Golovkin
“No, I would not advise him to go to 160,” Freddie said of him not wanting Pacquiao to fight Gennadiy. “Not when you’re getting old, but putting him at 147 was a risk at one time.
“Everyone told me, ‘Why are you moving him up to 147?’
“He can make 140 pretty easy, he can actually make 135 if he digs down. But to fight the biggest guys at 147, where the money was, it made good sense to all of us to fight the great Oscar (De La Hoya).“It was a great deal and it worked out really good for us,” Roach said of Pacquiao being an opportunist in taking advantage of the old, weight-drained De La Hoya in 2008.
It’s a gamble for Pacquiao and Golovkin to face each other because both would be taking tremendous risks. If Golvokin loses to the smaller Pacquiao, his career could be finished. For Pacquiao, he’ll be risking injury fighting the big punching GGG.
