Cotto Willing to Fight Pacquiao at 144, But Manny Could Want Him to Come Lower at 142
May 19th, 2009
By Manuel Perez: Manny Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum is eager for Manny to face Miguel Cotto, another fighter promoted by Arum, and would like Pacquiao to fight Cotto in the Puerto Rican’s stomping grounds at New York’s Madison Square Garden. This is a move that would guarantee a huge surge of Puerto Ricans that would flock to the fight, and according to Philstar, Arum thinks that the fight could capture as many as “80,000 Pay per view buys in Puerto Rico.
Either of those weights would almost crippling for Cotto to make at this point, because Miguel hasn’t fought at that low a weight since his fight with Paulie Malingnaggi way back in 2006, Even then, Cotto had to struggle to make the weight and looked sickly in having to dehydrate to make the weight.
Before a bout with Cotto can even be considered, Miguel must first defeat Joshua Clottey on June 13th at Madison Square Garden. That won’t be an easy fight for Cotto, because Clottey is a tough fighter along the lines of Antonio Margarito who stopped Cotto in the 11th round in July 2008.
At this point, there’s still a question whether Cotto is the same fighter he was before that fight, as he proved nothing by taking on the soft British fighter Michael Jennings in February, a fight which Cotto won in a 5th round stoppage.
I doubt that Cotto will be functional at 144, and at 142 or 140, you might as well consider it a win for Pacquiao, because Cotto will be far too weak to compete with Pacquiao in this fight. But I guess that’s then whole point of forcing Cotto to come in at a lower eight, isn’t it?
Freddie Roach, Pacquiao’s trainer, doesn’t want Pacquiao to fight Cotto at the 147, because he probably knows well enough that Cotto would wipe the deck with Pacquiao at that weight and make easy work of him. But so what? That’s expected because Cotto is the bigger and stronger fighter and Pacquiao is the one who’s eager to move up in weight to fight better known fighters that the boxing public actually cares about.
That’s the price that Pacquiao has to pay to fight a quality fighter like Cotto, and it’s hardly fair to cripple Cotto by making him come in at a weight that he can’t fight well at anymore. If Pacquiao needs to have an advantage like this, he might as well stay at lightweight and fight Juan Manuel Marquez for the third time like he should have done a long time ago.
It seems like Roach and Pacquiao’s other advisers are really calculating with their schemes of coming up with catch weights that put Pacquiao at a full advantage in fights by having his opponents too weight drained to fight effectively. I personally don’t like this. If Pacquiao can’t beat Cotto at 147, then Pacquiao has no business fighting him. The same goes for Shane Mosley and Floyd Mayweather Jr.
Tags: 14 Responses to “Cotto Willing to Fight Pacquiao at 144, But Manny Could Want Him to Come Lower at 142”
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coming up with catchweights… This isn’t boxing. If Pacquiao can’t beat Cotto at 147, then Pacquiao has no business fighting him. The same goes for Shane Mosley and Floyd Mayweather Jr.
Manuel Perez, ARE YOU A BOXING WRITER? or maybe you want to redefine boxing? welterweight range is from 140-147 lbs. any fight between this range is a welterweight fight. You want to see pacquaio fight cotto at 147, i agree to that, but let the weigh-in be on the same day of the fight, as it was in the old days. THAT FAIR ENOUGH TO YOU? maybe you should be a table tennis writer instead, but be sure to get more info rather than just pout your opinion.
you guys out there that think coming down in weight is easy arent fighters every real fighter knows that its very difficult pacman will never fight cotto at 147 cuz he wont be able to beat him same goes for cotto he wont fight lower than 145 cuz he would lose but why did pacman go up in weight to fight oscar cuz oscar is washed up even freedy roach said he wont go up in weight to fight cotto or mosely cuz it will be a nightmare for pacman.another thing after the oscar fight both pac and freddy said that 147 was a good weight then why not fight cotto at that weight i smell fear and one more thing cotto beats clottey late in the rounds guarantee
Clottey beats Cotto and then Mosley can step up and get has ass kick,then Money big mouth Mayweather can come and get the same thing Cotto and Mosley get, A good Ass Cuttin and the world will see who is the reining Champion is. Clottey the Master
Clottey is P4P hands down the best over any 147 fighter out there.
what is going to happen is Clottey is going to beat Cotto hand down so it’s not going to be a Manny vs. Cotto bout unless Cotto put it off but I don’t see it.
why pacquiao dont want to fight at 147??..
simple as this…
if your a fighter who started his pro career at 108 and jump at 140 and fight there twice would you want that your next fight to be at 147 instantly??..
roach is not dumb to know that…
everyone is criticizing pacquiao bcuz he wants to dehydrate his opponent and fight them??
see this thing…
mosley and cotto demands for 147 w/c is their weight division…
who got the advantage with that???..
pacquiao demands at 142…
pacquiao is at 140…. and fight twice at [140 and 147] [hatton/ODLH]…
*[he wants to fight this elite fighters in a balance condition...
roach want a 50-50 situation...
if pacquiao is willing to risk to fight bigger guys why dont mosley and cotto dont want to risk??
scared that a small guy can beat them??
so they hidie at 147 n w/c their best weight...
how can you tell urself that you are great if you dont risk.. "like PBF is doing"]*
naturally if pacquiao fights them at 147 you will call that suicidal w/c JMM just did.. [stupid guy]
beside theres still 2-3 fights before pacquiao retires..
this are the possible fights before pacquiao retires…
one would be pac vs pbf
2nd pac vs JMM III
and the third is pac vs mosley/cotto…
roach dont want to speed things up….
pacquiao is a great fighter but his not a god!
so stop pushing him to much…
be real…
balance the situation…
If manny doesnt move up to 147 then the move to 140 was a bad idea because there is nowhere for him to go. Marquez,Bradley. Thats about it.
Fighters like mayweather, cotto, mosley will all settle there differences at 147 leaving manny behind at 140
Cotto is a good fighter and Pacman is great.I admire Pacquiao’stand in regards of fighting in different weights.He has proven his legacy and already considered by many as one of the greatest fighter of all time.So if cotto wants to fight him he needs to negotiate and as pacman is the hottest star now…then he needs to agree to fight at 140 to 144..if he(cotto) will win then he will be considered as the one who beats the pound for pound king and must inherit the throne from pacman..forget ugly floyd because he will be upset by jmm..ready to watch the pacman /jmm 3this november..wanna bet?
Cotto will beat any fighter at 147 including Margarito if they fight again. he has always said he would fight anyone that his company puts in front of him, he is scared of no one.
Josue,
You seem to have no sense of the history of boxing. Your rant makes you sound like an idiot. Cotto doesn’t have the skill to be the kingpin at Welter which is why he wants to fight the smaller Pacquiao. You think that Cotto really has a shot at beating Williams? Get your head out of your ass. Williams would hand Cotto’s ass to him the way Margarito did. We’ll see if he can even get past Clottey. Cotto cannot get a big payday by himself so if he wants to take Pacquiao then he is going to have to negotiate plain and simple.
if pacman moved up in several weight classes, how can it be a big deal (for manny perez) for a single weight class champion to go just 4 pounds off his weight class. dont make wieght issues be the problem. let it be the fight. from 106 pounds to 140, no big deal; but from 147 to 143-144 is a big deal. i looks like another excuse for mr. perez to give for one of his fighters’ loss.
Why is it that Pacquiao has to move weight to fight everyone? How healthy is it for Pacquiao to constantly move weight to fight everyone? If Mosley and Cotto are so good, why don’t they fight Pacquiao at 135? Let’s see how good they are then. I know that 135 is not Mosley’s and Cotto’s natural weight, but 147 is definitely not Pacquiao’s natural weight. Manny moved up to 147, fought De la Hoya, and realized that it was difficult to move up that much. If they met somewhere in between, it would seem fair. Pacquiao agreed to fight at 147 but didn’t know before hand how difficult it is. Now that he knows, he understands the difficulty. Why not have Mosley or Cotto move down and see how it’s like. Cotto has fought at 140 before, why not again? It seems that Manny and Marquez are the only ones trying to prove their pound for pound status. It seems that everyone else is trying to prove they’re the best by staying at what they’re most comfortable with. So before anyone says anything, Pacquiao and Marquez have proved their skills. Mosley and Cotto haven’t proved anything. They stay at their weight class because they’re comfortable. Have them move around and see how good they really are. I don’t think they’ll do well. According to the pound for pound ratings, I don’t think Cotto or Mosley are in any position to have the top 2 chase them. They should chase the top 2. But, they won’t. If they want to be the pound for pound champions, they should chase the champions, not the other way around.
Apparently Marquez agreed to move up to 147 to face Mayweather so I retract my statement about Mayweather having to move down to a catch weight. However, I think that it was a very poor move on the part of Marquez and his management to acquiesce to Mayweather’s demands. Now Perez will whack off to the idea that JMM is heroic while Pacquiao is a chicken. Actually JMM just made his life a great deal more difficult and his chances of winning that much slimmer.
I doubt that a 144 pound catch weight would be objectionable to Arum or Pacquiao. Perez is already working on excuses in the event that Cotto loses. Look if Cotto cannot drop 4 pounds below the Welterweight limit for a huge payday, then perhaps he is not the athlete that some think he is. I can see a lower weight being an issue for Mosely because he is older and has fought at 154 or over for the last several years. Perez makes it sound as if Pacquiao and his camp invented catch weights. Boxing has a rich history of smaller fighters moving up and bigger fighters moving down in weight to make desired fights happen. Obviously it is Cotto’s responsibility to negotiate for a weight in which he will be able to perform competitively. If he can’t agree to the weight offered, then he moves on. There are plenty of decent fights to be made between 147 and 154. Perez, as usual you are taking an issue out of your ass and trying to turn it into something. I don’t see you making a stink out of Marquez “forcing” Mayweather to make the catch weight of 143, when Mayweather had been fighting above 147 in his last fights.