Pacquiao’s next opponent expected to be chosen this week

By Boxing News - 08/06/2012 - Comments

Image: Pacquiao's next opponent expected to be chosen this weekBy Allan Fox: Bob Arum will be meeting with Manny Pacquiao this week to select who will be standing across from him on November 10th. Floyd Mayweather Jr. is already out of the picture because Arum has ruled him out as one of the potential candidates to get the job. Arum has mentioned Miguel Cotto, Tim Bradley and Juan Manuel Marquez as the big three that Pacquiao will choose from.

Arum will likely urge Pacquiao to fight Marquez or Cotto because of the bigger money that those two fights will offer the Filipino and Arum himself. However, those are also very hard fights for Pacquiao because Marquez and Cotto are bigger punchers than Pacquiao. Cotto was soundly beaten by Pacquiao three years ago at a 145, but it’s unclear whether Pacquiao can do the same thing to Cotto now that Pacquiao’s game has started to slip in the last year.

Getting a fight done with Cotto may prove difficult for Arum because he’s fighting at 154 and he’s adamant about not wanting to move all the way down to the welterweight division to fight Pacquiao this time. Pacquiao might be hesitant about fighting Cotto at 150, because of all the punishment Pacquiao took the last time he fought at 150 in his win over Antonio Margarito. Pacquiao dominated Margarito but he still took a lot heavy shots in that fight and he hasn’t looked the same since.

Pacquiao still has unfinished business with Bradley due to him beating Pacquiao last June, but the money may not be there and boxing fans aren’t too interested in seeing a second fight between them. It would have to be something that Pacquiao doesn’t mind losing money on if he were to take the fight, because he would be giving up a lot of money that he could get in a fight against Marquez or Cotto. Of course, with the better money comes more punishment and risk from those fights for the Filipino star.



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