By Manuel Perez: Miguel Cotto’s excellent trainer Joe Santiago had some insight into Cotto’s opponent Manny Pacquiao, saying to El Nuevo “Manny Pacquiao is a bloated 126 pounds. He’s a fighter who started at 108 pounds and has reached 145. It is very bold and so far has gone well, but on November 14, it’ll be different.” This is the first person that has come forward and said exactly what I’ve thinking for a long time about Pacquiao since he started moving up in weight.

Pacquiao looks like he’s eaten too much food and is about to explode. I don’t think he’s made to put on that kind of weight and something has got to give. As soon as Cotto attacks Pacquiao’s midsection, I expect Pacquiao to weaken rapidly and maybe go down early. To me, Pacquiao looks like a fighter that has gone too far with his eating and needs to back off and step away from the dinner table.

“We have great respect for his career and hats off to him for what he’s done in boxing, but on that day Miguel will be the stronger man in the ring,” Santiago said. I absolutely agree with you, Mr. Santiago. I couldn’t have said it better myself. I have lots of respect for Pacquiao as a fighter. He’s accomplished a lot beating fighters, many of them I’ve never heard of, and captured this and that titles along the way.

But on November 14th, Cotto is going to put Pacquiao in his place and knock him back down to the super featherweight division where he belongs. It’s nice that Pacquiao was able to beat an old weight drained war horse like Oscar De La Hoya and take advantage of an overrated Ricky Hatton, but on November 14th, Pacquiao will be facing the real deal in World Boxing Organization welterweight champion Miguel Cotto and he’ll be in way over his head.

The weight that Pacquiao has put on, roughly 20 pounds of muscle, will only slow him down as it did the valiant Juan Manuel Marquez in his battle against the huge Floyd Mayweather Jr. And we will then see Pacquiao likely getting battered around the ring like a human piñata for Cotto.

Pacquiao has received credit for beating Hatton and De La Hoya, but the people who are all over Pacquiao, patting him on the back 24/7 and saying how great he is, seem to have lost track of who Pacquiao really beat to get all the praise. They need to focus for a second and clear their heads about Pacquiao’s so-called greatness and realize that he didn’t beat Paul Williams, Shane Mosley, Cotto or even Andre Berto.

Pacquiao beat De La Hoya and Hatton. There’s a big difference between beating up Hatton, De La Hoya and winning a questionable 12 round decision over the great Marquez, than there is beating a top welterweight who fights at that weight, isn’t drained from making weight and isn’t over the hill. I see pain, a lot of it for Pacquiao on November 14th against Cotto, and it doesn’t matter if Pacquiao eats himself up to 145, he’s just going to make a louder impact when he gets dropped by Cotto.