By Chris Williams: Top Rank promoter Bob Arum is waiting on a proposal from former WBA junior middleweight champion Miguel Cotto about what he wants for a fight against Manny Pacquiao. Arum has already received proposals from the other two options – Tim Bradley and Juan Manuel Marquez.

Arum told philboxing.com “We don’t have a final proposal from Cotto but we do have from Marquez and Bradley, and once we get the Cotto position, then Pacquiao will make his decision.”

You have to imagine that the key things that Arum and Pacquiao will focus on with Cotto, besides what he wants in terms of cash, is the weight. That could be the deal breaker, because Arum is already talking about Pacquiao needing a catchweight of 150 lbs if Cotto is going to fight him. I don’t know if Cotto will be open to fighting another catchweight fight, especially given how badly things turned out the last time he fought Pacquiao at a catchweight in 2009. Floyd Mayweather Jr., who Cotto fought recently in May, was okay with fighting Cotto at the full weight of the junior middleweight division without a catchweight.

Mayweather said he didn’t want Cotto to be weakened by using a catchweight and wanted to get full credit for beating him. But will Pacquiao agree to do the same thing? I doubt it. My guess is the Cotto-Pacquiao fight hinges on not only how much money Cotto is asking for but more importantly him being willing to fight at a catchweight for the bout to take place. It’s sad that a fight like that could fall apart due to Cotto not being agreeable to fighting at catchweight, but that’s something that could potentially sink this fight.