By Chris Williams: It looks like I’m not the only one that doesn’t understand how Manny Pacquiao and Antonio Margarito can be fighting for the vacant WBC junior middleweight title on November 13th, despite having no to very little experience at that weight class. Pacquiao has never fought at junior middleweight, while Margarito has fought only once at that weight class in the past six years yet he’s ranked at the top of the division by the WBC and fighting Pacquiao for the title. Roger Mayweather says this in an article by John Martinez, “He’s [Pacquiao] been fighting under weights that he challenges at. He didn’t fight Oscar, Ricky or Cotto at 147. He’s always weighing in less and he had them drain their bodies to make weight. It’s like cheating. Look, if you’re gonna challenge a motherf**ker that’s in weight class, then fight at the required weight or don’t challenge him at all and if you’re gonna fight for a title at a bigger weight class, then respect that weight and title and fight at 154.” Here here, bravo, Roger!

I totally agree with Mayweather. The sanctioning bodies need to create a rule against weight fights involving titles. It’s not right, especially if you have a fighter that is extremely popular like Pacquiao and pretty much able to create pressure to get the catchweights, even when fighting a champion. We saw with his fight with Miguel Cotto last year. But besides all that, how can you fight for a title if it’s not going to be at the full weight? That is so weird. I don’t see how it’s allowed and if I was a fighter, I wouldn’t want anything to do with it. That just seems so wrong.

Emanuel Steward says “Catchweights should be looked at, especially with Pacquiao. He has been fighting guys, but doesn’t weigh in at the same weight limit that he has challenged them at. I think this should be addressed.” Yes, the catchweight fights have to go. I’m all for Pacquiao fighting whoever he wants to fight. But to have a title on the line for a catch weight fight? Man, that’s really off putting for me. I guess Pacquiao’s adoring fans don’t really mind, but I certainly would if it was for a fighter that I looked up to. I would figure what is the guy doing fighting bigger guys if he needs them to melt down to a lower than the maximum weight.

But beyond the catchweight itself, I don’t understand how Pacquiao, who never fought once in his career at light middleweight, can be pushed above the other fighters and given a shot at the vacant title. Man, there’s that have been working their backsides off for ages trying to get a shot at the title in the division and here we have Pacquiao skipping over all of them for a fight against someone who has fought once at that weight in six years. There’s no way that Margarito should be ranked number #1 by the WBC, and way should Pacquiao be able to fight for the title. When Pacquiao fought Cotto for the WBO title, Pacquiao had never fought at welterweight before during his career, and yet all off a sudden weeks before the fight, the WBO shoved Pacquiao to the number #1 position, giving Cotto no other choice but to have his WBO title on the line or else risk having it stripped from him. How and why was Pacquiao placed at number one in the division when he had never fought there and before? The timing was fishy to say the least.