By Chris Williams: Promoter Lou Dibella doesn’t think Manny Pacquiao will ever face WBC Diamond middleweight champion Sergio Martinez even if Martinez melts down to a strength-weakening 150 pound catchweight to fight the Filipino star.
Dibella doesn’t think Pacquiao’s promoters will ever let him take the fight with the hard hitting and smooth boxing Martinez. Instead, Dibella sees the highly skilled Floyd Mayweather Jr. stepping up to the plate and taking on Martinez.
In an interview at Ring.TV, Dibella said “Nobody at Top Rank is going to let Manny Pacquiao get near Sergio. That fight won’t happen, and I can see why given how small Manny is. Mayweather is probably Sergio’s best chance for a super fight, because he’s not that much smaller and I don’t believe he’s a coward.”
First let me address Dibella’s comments about Pacquiao and Mayweather’s size. Mayweather is little more than an inch taller. He’s 5’8, while Pacquiao is 5’6 1/2″. That’s only an inch and a half between Mayweather and Pacquiao. Martinez is only 5’10”, and is actually shorter than the 5’11” Antonio Margarito, who Pacquiao defeated in a Top Rank in house fight last December.
If Martinez is considered too big for Pacquiao, then why on earth was Margarito not considered too big? The answer is obvious. Margarito is as slow as molasses and his punching power seems to have diminished since his fight with Shane Mosley in 2009. In contrast, Martinez is fast, powerful and can box. That pretty much takes him off the Pacquiao list, doesn’t it?
Mayweather definitely isn’t a coward, as we saw in his challenges of Juan Manuel Marquez, Shane Mosley and Victor Ortiz. Why didn’t Pacquiao fight Ortiz?
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