Can Pacquiao beat Cotto without a catchweight handicap?

By Boxing News - 08/25/2012 - Comments

Image: Can Pacquiao beat Cotto without a catchweight handicap?By Chris Williams: Junior middleweight Miguel Cotto (37-3, 30 KO’s) is one of the two fighters that Bob Arum is strongly considering to put in with his fighter Manny Pacquiao on November 10th. Cotto brings in the money on pay per view due to his large fan base, and he puts backsides in the seats no matter where the fight takes place.

However, the one problem that may get in the way of the fight taking place is Pacquiao’s likely request for another catchweight handicap.

Arum already said that a catchweight would be needed for Pacquiao to fight Cotto, and he’s talking 150 lbs. It’s unclear whether Cotto will agree to that because he’s 154 pounder now and even if melts down to only 150 instead of the 147 that was requested last time of him when he was in the running to fight Pacquiao, it might too much for him to take off.

The question here is does Pacquiao really need a catchweight handicap in order to fight Cotto? Does he need to fight at 150 instead of the full 154? Pacquiao already completely dominated Cotto in stopping him in the 12th round three years ago in their 145 pound catchweight fight in 2009. Does Pacquiao still need a catchweight to fight a guy he already beat? Floyd Mayweather Jr. just finished fighting – and beating – Cotto at the full weight for the junior middleweight class. Mayweather refused to fight at a catchweight because he wanted credit for when he won, and he didn’t want Cotto to be uncomfortable by having to melt down to some kind of catchweight that would hurt him while benefiting Mayweather. If Mayweather was willing to fight Cotto at the full weight for the junior middleweight division then why shouldn’t Pacquiao? Does he absolutely need a catchweight in order to fight Cotto?

Shouldn’t catchweight fights not be considered real fights? I know Pacquiao has won two of his world titles using catchweight handicaps, but shouldn’t those be exhibition bouts and not considered legit? What would happen if there was some kind of handicap used in football, basketball and hockey for smaller players. Wouldn’t that be kind of weird? I think it would be bad for the sports.

I think Cotto would be too powerful for Pacquiao if there wasn’t a catchweight used to weaken Cotto enough for Pacquiao to win. Cotto has gotten better in the last three years since his loss to Pacquiao. I wish I could say the same thing about Pacquiao. He looks like he’s lost a lot since his fight with Cotto in 2009. I’d have to favor Cotto if the fight were held at 154 without a strength draining catchweight handicap.



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