By Sean McDaniel: Fresh off his impressive 2nd round knockout over Ricky Hatton last Saturday night, Manny Pacquiao and his team are looking at the next opponent for Pacquiao for later on this year. Pacquiao’s trainer, Freddie Roach, is adamant about Pacquiao’s next opponent – a likely top welterweight – coming in at a 142 pound ‘catch weight.’
Having such a strict requirement makes it hard on some of the top welterweights to meet that requirement, because many of them have a really tough time just making the normal 147 pound welterweight weight limit and would be in danger of being weakened if they have to come in any lower than that.
The name that has been on most boxing fan’s minds – Floyd Mayweather Jr. – is someone who may not make the cut for Pacquiao’s next fight, mainly because Mayweather is hard to negotiate with, wants a lot of money and Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum reportedly doesn’t relish the idea of having to negotiate with Mayweather.
On top of that, Roach thinks that Mayweather is a runner, a pot shotter that hits and runs and doesn’t come to fight. Roach prefers someone like Shane Mosley (46-5, 39 KOs).
Mosley, 37, is coming off one of the best wins of his career, a 9th round TKO over World Boxing Association welterweight champion Antonio Margarito in January. The win seems to have re-energized Mosley’s lagging career, which took a major hit when he was defeated by Miguel Cotto by a close 12-round decision in November 2007.
Mosley looked bad in defeated Ricardo Mayorga by a 12th round KO in September 2008, and there were many boxing fans that felt that Mosley had lost a step and that he was showing signs of being over the hill. However, Mosley’s performance against Margarito seems to have erased those doubts from people’s minds.
Mosley is reportedly very interested in fighting Pacquiao, and has already approached Roach about a fight. The problem is that when Roach asked Mosley if he could make the 142 pound catch weight, Mosley said that he couldn’t.
However, I imagine that Mosley would probably reconsider that, because at this point Pacquiao is the biggest fight out there for Mosley, and easily the biggest fight for Shane since he fought De La Hoya for the 2nd and final time six long years ago in September 2003.
Perhaps the more likely opponent for Pacquiao is 28-year-old World Boxing Organization welterweight champion Miguel Cotto (33-1, 27 KOs), who is also quite interested in fighting Pacquiao and is more than willing to meet at the 142 pound catch weight for the bout.
Better than that, Cotto has the same trainer as Pacquiao in Bob Arum, which will make fight negations that much easier. Although the fight isn’t quite as appealing as a Mosley fight due to Shane’s bigger fan base in the United States and his better career resume against top opposition.
Cotto has faced little in the way of top opponents in his eight year pro career, with Paulie Malignaggi, Carlos Quintana, Zab Judah, Mosley, and Margarito being his biggest names on his resume. However, Cotto fight Judah late in his career, after he had already been beaten by both Kostya Tszyu and Floyd Mayweather Jr, making the win less impressive.
Quintana is a good fighter, but far from a great one, and Malignaggi is a weak puncher. Of Cotto’s opponents, only his fights with Margarito and Mosley stand out as being the best, and Cotto lost to Margarito by a 11th round TKO, and struggled badly in his 12 round decision victory over Mosley.
Indeed, Cotto appeared to run out of gas in the fight and ran pretty much from the 9th to the 12th, losing many of those rounds to Mosley. Had the fight gone another three rounds, I have no doubts that Cotto either would have been knocked out or beaten by a decision by Mosley.
Stamina is a clearly a problem for Cotto, and it might be even worse of a problem if Cotto is forced to take off weight to meet Pacquiao at 142.
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