Just who might superstar and living legend Manny Pacquiao fight next? It’s coming up a full year since the incredible 41-year-old last dazzled us all in the ring; his July 2019 decision win over an unbeaten Keith Thurman, adding even more luster to Pac-Man’s astonishing legacy.
Just recently, we’ve heard names like Terence Crawford (in a fight that would perhaps take place in Bahrain, various reports suggest), Mikey Garcia, Thurman in a rematch (“One Time” wanting a shot at revenge) and now, amazingly, Gennady Golovkin.
Freddie Roach, the long-time trainer of Manny, spoke on DAZN, and Freddie said Pacquiao “might want to go a little higher and fight GGG.” Roach said it would be “crazy” to look at having the southpaw dynamo fight as high as a middleweight, but the trainer said people once looked at him with raised eyebrows when he said he was going to put Manny into fights at welterweight.
“There are always good fights out there,” Roach said. “The one thing about Manny is he doesn’t want to beat anybody he wants to beat the best out there; he wants to fight the top guys. Mikey Garcia has called him out a couple of times; I think that’s a good fight for him, of course. I like that fight for Manny; I think it’s a great fight. But the thing is Manny maybe might want to go a little higher and fight GGG or one of those guys who is supposed to be one of the best in the world today. Pacquiao still desires to be the best there is. No, I would not advise him to go to 160 pounds, that would be a little crazy. But putting him at 147 was a risk at one time.”
Roach spoke of the manner in which people asked him why he was putting his fighter in with welterweights when he could make 135 and 140. As we all know, Roach was right in believing Pacquiao had what it took to beat starfighters at welterweight, these being Oscar De La Hoya, Miguel Cotto, and others.
Still, could Pacquiao possibly be able to fight Golovkin? Another catch-weight fight is always a possibility in boxing, and if a Pacquiao-GGG battle were made, it would be a case of Pacquiao going up in weight some and GGG coming down in weight some. But even at, say 156 or 158, this would still be far, far, far too big a push for Pac-Man, surely?
Put it this way, if Pacquiao was able to fight and defeat Golovkin – who is now past his very best at age 38 but still a natural middleweight who hits extremely hard – we would have to stop insulting the Filipino icon with words like great, even all-time great. The case would be very strong for Pacquiao being THE greatest of all time.
Has a Pacquiao-GGG fight got any legs at all, or was Freddie just chewing the fat?