John Scully: “Manny Pacquiao’s a older guy and he’s been knocked out before. Canelo’s a risk that’s unnecessary.”

Trainer ‘Ice-man’ John Scully is a well known and respected member in the boxing world. He was a former title challenger as a boxer and trained ‘Bad’ Chad Dawson to a world title win over the legendary Bernard Hopkins. I recently was afforded a chance to speak to John and I got his thoughts on the current boxing landscape. Scully shared his views on Canelo Alvarez’s reign at middleweight and also talked about Floyd Mayweather’s possible comeback. Additionally, Scully discussed a potential rematch between Mayweather & Pacquiao and also a Canelo-Pacquiao bout. Here is what John Scully had to say.

Robert Brown: John, can you tell the fans what you have been up to recently?

John Scully: I’ve been in Montreal for about five weeks now, helping train Artur Beterbiev, the vicious light heavyweight. His main trainer, Mark Ramsey, has been busy training David Lemieux and a few other guys for fights that they had, so I’ve been here training Artur. Artur has some sparring set up tomorrow morning. A lot of boxing fans may not realize who he is yet but he’s a really devastating light heavyweight, he’s going to make a lot of noise in the division very soon.

Robert Brown: What were your thoughts on Canelo Alvarez recent decision to drop the WBC middleweight belt to avoid a fight with Gennady Golovkin?

John Scully: For me, I like Canelo, but I’m really tired of them bypassing ‘GGG’ and talking about 155lbs and all of these kinds of things. I’m not a fan of anyone who obviously avoids the champion and the guy who he views as a big threat.

Robert Brown: Floyd Mayweather recently hinted on Showtime that he might make a comeback, what are your thoughts on that?

John Scully: I’ve known all along, literally from the first day that he retired, I said immediately that he would come back. There’s no way he’s not going to come back. I figured he was going to try to go for Khan maybe in England, but now this puts a big damper on that.

I’m hearing Danny Garcia or maybe he will fight Garcia and then fight the winner of Thurman and Porter. There are still great fights for him out there and the opportunity for him to make all that money for his kids. He’s still in great shape — he’s older, he’s heading towards forty, but he’s certainly not your average forty year old. Floyd has kept himself in big condition and there are big fights for him. If I were to guess just based on the buzz that I’m hearing, I’m thinking that Garcia will get the call.

Robert Brown: Do you give Danny Garcia a chance if he fights Floyd? What are your thoughts on that possible match up?

John Scully: I wouldn’t feel comfortable giving him much of a chance. If Floyd is like his last fight with Berto, I don’t think Garcia will stand much of a chance. Floyd’s beaten bigger guys, stronger guys, bigger punchers, more skilled fighters. You always got to keep an eye on Danny, he’s dangerous but I wouldn’t see him beating Floyd ever.

Robert Brown: Manny Pacquiao recently got a victory over Timothy Bradley. Do you think Manny will stay retired or come back? Who are some possible opponents for him if he comes back?

John Scully: I thought he looked very good. He looked to me like Floyd looked against Berto in that they didn’t look like they were in the position to retire, but I guess that’s just the way it always is. People very rarely retire when they have something left, that’s why they all lose their last fight, because they use it all up.

There’s so many fights out there. There’s so many fights for Pacquiao at that weight, even leading towards a Mayweather rematch. If they both come back and score big wins over these guys, I’m sure there are people who would pay to see the rematch. It’s a hot weight class right now and I thought it was an odd time for either of them to retire because their weight class is probably the hottest that it’s been in several years.

Robert Brown: You think the Pacquiao-Mayweather rematch is possible?

John Scully: I wouldn’t put it past these guys to even go through this whole charade of retirement just so they can come back and draw that kind of attention for the rematch. I don’t think real boxing people want to see a rematch, I don’t want to see a rematch at all, I don’t care at all. But I think fans can be manipulated and they could really play up the angle that Pacquiao had a sore wrist or elbow, or whatever it is he had injured. There’s ways to spin the pre-fight talk and even if they didn’t make huge money — which they will — they’re still going to make way more than any of these other guys are making fighting each other.

Robert Brown: Do you think a fight between Manny Pacquiao and Saul Alvarez is realistic?

John Scully: I don’t think so, I really don’t. Pacquiao is not a young guy, he’s an older guy, he’s had a lot of fights, he’s heading towards seventy fights. He’s got a lot of wear and tear, he’s been knocked out before. It’s a risk that’s unnecessary. Business wise, there would be no reason, and nobody would say to him, “Hey you should have moved up and fought Canelo,” no one would say that. I’ve never even considered the fight in my mind, it’s never even crossed my mind, so if he doesn’t do it, I have no problem at all.

Robert Brown: Do you think Canelo would knock this version of Manny Pacquiao out?

John Scully: I think he would stop him, because I don’t think Pacquiao has it in him to run and to hide and to avoid getting knocked out and I think that would ultimately be his undoing.