By Matt Lieberman: Mikey Garcia isn’t ruling out a victory for Manny Pacquiao over IBF middleweight champion Gennadiy Golovkin if the two of them fight. Mikey sees Golovkin (40-1-1, 35 KOs) on his way out of boxing, and he thinks the 41-year-old Pacquiao (62-7-2, 39 KOs) has a chance of beating him.
Pacquiao has a lot to gain in fighting Golovkin over the likes of Mikey Garcia. Beating GGG would earn Pacquiao a ninth-division world title. That would be incredible given where Manny started his career at light flyweight [108 pounds] in 1995.
The last few performances of the 38-year-old GGG might be the reason why Mikey is giving the former eight-division world champion Pacquiao a shot at defeating him.
GGG looked terrible in beating Sergiy Derevyanchenko in his last putting on October 5, and he didn’t look much better against Steve Rolls and Canelo Alvarez.
Mikey would prefer that Pacquiao face him next because that’s the fight that he’s been campaigning for in the last year. The 32-year-old former four-division world champion Mikey has given a lot of interviews in which he’s let the boxing fans know that he wants Pacquiao.
Garcia not sure how Pacquiao vs. Golovkin can happen
“It could happen, but I never thought it would likely happen because Manny isn’t that big with his size,” said Mikey to Fighthype when asked his thoughts on Pacquiao potentially facing Gennady Golovkin.
“GGG is a little too big to consider it a real fight and an actual possibility. Manny is down to fight, and that’s not what I’m questioning. I’m saying when he [Pacquiao] himself wasn’t weighing in that much, but GGG is 160.
That’s probably even heavier now. I don’t know. So I don’t see how that could happen. I don’t think GGG can come down any lower than 160, and I don’t know that Manny is willing to go up or accept a fight at 160. So I don’t know. I think if he were to go up to 160, who else is at 160?” said Garcia on Golovkin.
A fight could happen between Manny and Golovkin, but it would depend on the negotiations. They would need to agree on the weight, and it sounds like Golovkin would require Pacquiao to come up in weight 13 pounds to face him at 160.
Pacquiao could put a little weight on to fight at 160, but he would be giving away a lot of size and reach. Golovkin is 5’10” compared to the 5’6″ Pacquiao, and that would be a significant advantage.
In Pacquiao’s last fight against the 5’7″ Keith Thurman, he got hit a lot and just barely beat him last July.
Manny might beat GGG
“GGG is towards the end of his career, so I could still see Manny doing well,” said Mikey sounding like a politician more than a boxer. ‘It’s a complicated thing.
“I could see Manny still doing pretty well, but as I said, GGG is on his way out maybe, but that’s what we’ve always said about Manny. So I don’t know. We always thought Manny is ready to retire.
“He’s too old, but he keeps surprising everybody. Who knows? He might be able to pull it off if they do that fight,” said Mikey in giving Pacquiao a chance to beat Golovkin. You never know with Manny because he’s always surprising people.
“If they’re actually doing that fight, then I’m curious too. It’s not an easy fight. He’d [Pacquiao] have to move up in weight a lot,” added Mikey.
Pacquiao would need to stay out of the trenches with Golovkin for him to win because he’ll take too much punishment from the Kazahstan fighter if he stands and trades with him for 12 rounds.
Welterweight Kell Brook got the better of Golovkin in the first three rounds of their fight in 2016, and he was fighting with a fractured orbital bone. Golovkin has problems with fighters that throw combinations.
Manny would need to make Golovkin respect him to have a shot at winning because he’ll walk him down if he feels there’s nothing to fear. That’s what Golovkin did to Brook. He was willing to take the hard shots from Brook to beat him up and stop him in the fifth round.
Pacquiao hasn’t said yet what his plans are for his next fight. Who knows? He may want nothing to do with Golovkin. It doesn’t look like Pacquiao is going to fight this year anyway.
Mikey won’t fight in 2020 unless the virus goes away
“I don’t know. If boxing gets back to where it was,” said Mikey when asked if he’ll be fighting in 2020. “If not, then we’ll probably have to wait until there are fans.
“Before that, it’s probably hard to put a budget that makes sense for the opponent, for the card, and for the expenses, for me and for everybody.
“It’s very difficult. I doubt you see anything big fight, not just me. I doubt you see any big fight before this virus goes away,” said Mikey.
If Mikey chooses to sit and wait until the pandemic goes away, he could hurt his career. It’s not just the money Mikey would be losing out in 2020. his popularity will suffer if he doesn’t fight, and the ring rust will start hurting his game.
If the pandemic is still around by the end of 2021, what does Mikey do? Does he continue to sit it out and wait for a cure, or does he get back in the ring and look to fight the best available opponent?
Perhaps one reason why Mikey isn’t looking to fight anybody right now is that he’s hoping he’ll get the Pacquiao fight. If Mikey schedules a match right now, he’ll mess up his chances for the Manny contest.