All Talk Of A Pacquiao-GGG Fight Snuffed Out – “Not In This Lifetime”

By James Slater - 06/19/2020 - Comments

Freddie Roach suggested that maybe, possibly, his star fighter Manny Pacquiao might be interested in “going higher and fighting a GGG.” Instantly, the internet was buzzing with talk. Could it happen? Should it happen? Would Pac-Man have a real shot of winning the fight? Would Manny have ANY chance at winning the battle? A natural 140 pounder against a fully-fledged middleweight! Many people dismissed the action right away, while others were not sure what to think; there have, of course, been strange, unlikely, and just plain wacky contests over the years.

But now any further talk of a Pacquiao-GGG fight has been snuffed out. Sean Gibbons, Manny’s right-hand man, and Justine Fortune, Pacquiao’s strength and conditioner, spoke with The Manila Times, and both men completely ruled the fight out. As it totally.

“Manny Pacquiao versus Gennady Golovkin is never going to happen in this lifetime,” Gibbons said flatly. “Freddie’s quote was taken out of context.”

Fortune wasn’t far behind:

“I didn’t know if Freddie was joking. It’s a 147 pounder against a full-fledged middleweight,” Fortune told the newspaper. “I mean, it’s not like an ordinary man anyway. Golovkin is a good, best at middleweight [fighter]. I will recommend against it. If I was a middleweight, I wouldn’t go fighting a heavyweight, that would be silly.”

Promoter Bob Arum also called this would-be (but in actuality never will be) fight “silly.” It could have been far more than that – extremely dangerous springs to mind. But now the fight is nothing but a past notion (a notion that was taken out of context in the first place) we look to who Pacquiao’s next foe may actually be. Talk of that big fight with Terence Crawford persists – Arum saying he wants it next for Crawford.

That fight is also a massive task for the 41-year-old Pac Man. But at least this fight is realistic in that both men are welterweights, even if Manny is still, after all this time, a small welterweight. If Pacquiao does fight Crawford and if he can defeat him, well, that would be almost as out of this world as that Pacquiao Vs. GGG fight talk was.