Manny Pacquiao would be making an enormous mistake if he decides to move up to middleweight to face Gennadiy Golovkin.
Boxing people – including fans – sometimes latch onto a stupid idea and won’t let go.
One example is the notion that 53-year-old Mike Tyson should take on legitimate, active heavyweights because he looked good in a video. Not going to happen. Tyson is too smart to allow that, smarter than those who would have him get eaten alive by the likes of Tyson Fury or Deontay Wilder.
Another example: The idea that Manny Pacquiao fighting Gennadiy Golovkin somehow makes sense.
Freddie Roach, Pacquiao’s trainer, threw out that concept during an off-the-cuff conversation with DAZN commentator Chris Mannix but soon retracted it, saying it wouldn’t be wise move. Too late. The train was out of the station.
Now people, even some of those who should know better, are running with the notion. Here’s the reality: The idea of Pacquiao fighting Golovkin is ludicrous.
Those who seem to be entertaining the concept will point to Pacquiao’s past to defend their position. He went up from junior lightweight to welterweight in the span of two fights to take on superstar Oscar De La Hoya and scored a knockout, after all.
A few years later the one-time junior flyweight moved up to junior middleweight and easily outpointed rugged Antonio Margarito. 160 is only six pounds more than 154.
And the advocates will point to Golovkin’s advanced age (38) and his most recent fight, a give-and-take struggle against Sergey Derevyanchenko that they contend revealed wear and tear that has eroded Triple-G’s skills.
Here’s the thing. Pacquiao was about to turn 30 and 32 when he fought De La Hoya and Margarito; he’s 41 now, three years older than Golovkin. Also, history tells us that De La Hoya was in fact a shell of what he’d been. He looked almost shot in his previous fight against Steve Forbes. Margarito was never the same after he was knocked out by Shane Mosley two fights earlier, after which the Mexican was out of boxing for almost a year and half.
Golovkin? Thirty-eight is 38. He obviously isn’t as good as he was at 28. That said, since when does one tough fight against an excellent opponent — which is what Derevyanchenko is — turn a pound-for-pounder into a has been overnight?
Triple-G fought Canelo Alvarez on even terms less than two years ago, for God’s sake. And mark my words: If he gets Alvarez into the ring anytime soon, he’ll give the Mexican superstar a much better fight than many believe he will.
Most critical in my opposition to this potential mismatch: Pacquiao is a natural 140-pounder while Golovkin is a natural 160-pounder. Bottom line: A 41-year-old small welterweight has no business in the ring with a legitimate middleweight, especially one as capable as Golovkin remains. Pacquiao might not walk out of the ring under his own power.
On top of everything else, Pacquiao fights in a division rich in talent. Why pick on someone so much bigger than him when he has Terence Crawford, Mikey Garcia and other well-known, marketable fighters resided at his current weight class?
None of this makes sense.
Now, for the record, I have to mention something. I thought Pacquiao had almost no chance to beat Keith Thurman last July. Pacquiao proved me wrong, leading me to say with great conviction that I will never, ever put anything past the second greatest fighter of his generation.
Golovkin is simply a bridge too far. Roach knows it. And I’m sure Pacquiao knows it.
