News – Pacquiao to Fight Cotto or Chavez Jr. Next

By Jim Dower: If everything goes as planned, Manny Pacquiao (48-3-2, 36 KOs) will be fighting either Miguel Cotto or Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. next, likely in November 2009, according to Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum. However, a lot hinges on whether Pacquiao can get by Ricky Hatton on May 2nd at the MGM Grand, in Las Vegas, Nevada. If Pacquiao can defeat Hatton and do it in an impressive manner, then the fight with Cotto can take place as long as Cotto defeats Joshua Clottey on June 13th in their WBO welterweight title bout at New York’s Madison Square Garden.

According to the Manilla Press, if the bout with Cotto doesn’t come off, Arum will try to put Pacquiao in with undefeated Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (39-0-1, 29 KOs) at a catch weight of 150 pounds. Using Chavez Jr. as an opponent seems like a huge step down from someone like Cotto, but the fight would still likely sell big in Mexico where Chavez Jr. is a star.

Floyd Mayweather Jr. is also a possible opponent for Pacquiao, as he’s said recently that he wants to take on the winner of the Hatton-Pacquiao bout. The problem here is that Mayweather, who hasn’t fought in over a year, wants 60% of the purse according to Arum, and he doesn’t feel that’s right because of what Pacquiao has accomplished to become arguably the biggest star in boxing in the past year.

No doubt the Mayweather Jr. bout would be the best option for Pacquiao if they can get Mayweather to accept a smaller purse than Pacquiao. That’s going to be tough if not impossible to do, however, because Mayweather Jr. was boxing’s biggest attractions a year ago and held the pound-for-pound status as the best boxer in the sport in the eyes of many writers and boxing fans.

The year off from the sport, though, hasn’t helped Mayweather stay in the minds of fans, as they’ve moved on to other fighters like Hatton, Cotto and Pacquiao.

It’s unclear what Pacquiao will do if he loses to Hatton. Obviously, a loss to Hatton, even a close one, will rule out any possible fights against Cotto, Mayweather or Chavez Jr. and it will put Pacquiao in a much weaker position for big fights. The ideal scenario would be a narrow loss to Hatton, which could lead to a demand for a rematch with Ricky.

That fight would likely make almost as much money as the first one if their May 2nd fight turns out to be as exciting as most people expect it to be. In that case, Pacquiao would still be doing quite well for himself – even better than a bout against Chavez Jr. – if he does end up losing to Hatton next month.

Arum seems to think that the combination of Pacquiao’s superior hand speed and southpaw stance will be too much for Hatton, and will result in the bout having a similar ending to Pacquiao’s 9th round stoppage of WBC lightweight champion David Diaz in June 2008.

Three years ago, Hatton had a lot of problems with Luis Collazo, another southpaw with good hand speed, who gave Hatton all kinds of problems and staggered him in the 12th round. Hatton ended up winning by a narrow decision, but it could have gone either way.

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