Eight-weight world champion Manny Pacquiao could move up to middleweight to challenge Gennady Golovkin, according to trainer Freddie Roach.

The 41 year-old, who began at 112 pounds in the flyweight division, currently holds the WBA welterweight title, defending it most recently against Keith Thurman last July.

And while the Filipino has been linked with a clash at 147 pounds against Mikey Garcia, coach Roach admits he could see Pacquiao jump up two weight classes and attempt to upset someone like Golovkin.

Speaking to DAZN, Roach said: "There are always good fights out there, 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. Robert [Garcia] called him out on one of your (DAZN) shows, that made me smile because 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."

"I would not advise him to go 160lbs, that would be a little crazy. But putting him at 147lbs was a risk at one time. People would go to me, ‘why are you moving him up to 147lbs?’, but he was very natural at that weight, he made the weight pretty good.

"He can make 140lbs pretty easy, he can actually make 135lbs but that’s a little bit more effort. But to fight the biggest guys at 147lbs with the money, it made good sense to all of us to fight the great Oscar. It was a great deal and it worked out really well for us."

Golovkin holds a professional record of 40 wins, one loss and one draw, with his only two blemishes coming at the hands of Saul ’Canelo’ Alvarez.

Since his majority decision loss to Alvarez in September 2018, the Kazakh has picked up two victories, but is widely considered to be slowing down at the age of 38.

Meanwhile, Pacquiao has lost just once in six fights since being defeated by Floyd Mayweather Jr in one of the biggest fights of all time back in 2015.