Shakur Stevenson likes the idea of Manny Pacquiao moving up two weight classes to take on middleweight champion Gennadiy Golovkin. This is a winnable fight for Pacquiao (62-7-2, 39 KOs) over the still powerful 38-year-old GGG, according to Stevenson.
This would be a chance for Pacquiao to put his name in the record books for all time by winning a ninth division world title in beating Golovkin. No fighter has ever done that before, and likely never will. Pacquiao will be the Babe Ruth of boxing if he beats Golovkin to set a record that could be unbreakable.
Although Ruth’s home run records were broken, it took years for that to happen. In Pacquiao’s case, he could set a record that would never be broken if he wins a ninth division world title.
Stevenson likes Pacquiao vs. Golovkin
“I don’t think it’s a bad fight,” said Shakur Stevenson to ESNEWS on a match between Manny Pacquiao and Gennadiy Golovkin.
“I think Manny [can still] fight, and I think GGG is on the down skirts of his career like he’s not the same GGG anymore,” said Stevenson.
The WBO featherweight champion Stevenson (14-0, 8 KOs) admits that it’s not a given that the 41-year-old Pacquiao would beat Golovkin. He states that if GGG shows up with his old form that he had when he was on the top of his game, then the 5’5 1/2″ Pacquiao will be in trouble against him.
Stevenson is mostly basing Pacquiao’s chances on the Gennadiy that the boxing world saw last October when he had a lot of problems beating Sergiy ‘The Technician’ Derevyanchenko by a 12 round unanimous decision at Madison Square Garden in New York.
That version of Golovkin that fans saw looked old and shot. However, the Golovkin that showed up for his first fight with Canelo Alvarez in 2017 would be a problem for Pacquiao.
Golovkin would need to throw a lot more punches, and be faster at cutting off the ring for him to have a shot at beating Pacquiao. In Golovkin’s controversial 12 round decision win over Derevyanchenko (13-2, 10 KOs), he was hammered to the body and outworked. Pacquiao is capable of doing to Golovkin what Derevyanchenko did.
Pacquiao will be in TROUBLE if old Golovkin shows up
“Manny is real fast, knows what he’s doing,” said Shakur. “I think it’s a situation where he could probably come out on top in maybe, though. It depends on which GGG shows up.
“Like if the old GGG shows up, Manny is in for a bad night. But if the GGG fought his last fight against [Sergiy] Derevyanchenko shows up, Manny would beat him,” said Stevenson.
The danger for Pacquiao is if a rejuvenated Golovkin shows up for a fight between them, and fights above what we saw from him against Canelo and Derevyanchenko.
If Pacquiao faces the Golovkin that knocked out Kell Brook in 2016, then the Filipino star won’t last long against him. He’ll get walked down and taken out with one of his big shots from Golovkin in the same way Brook was four years ago.
Thus far, Pacquiao has been quiet about whether he’d be interested in facing Golovkin. It was Manny’s trainer Freddie Roach who said that he was concerned that he would want to take a risky fight against Golovkin (40-1-1, 35 KOs) rather than the match that he wants for him against Mikey Garcia.
Pacquiao reportedly is interested in running for the presidency of the Philippines in a couple of years. If he wants to strengthen his position for that job, then a victory over Golovkin would be one way for him to achieve that. You can argue that it would be a strategic move on Pacquiao’s part in taking on Golovkin because it could pay off big time.
