By William Mackay: In looking at potential fight options for Manny Pacquiao, I think he’s really selling himself short if he selects Miguel Cotto as his next opponent rather than say Floyd Mayweather Jr. or Shane Mosley. By Far, I think Mayweather Jr. or Mosley is the much better options for Pacquiao. Unfortunately, it looks as Pacquiao’s promoter is interested in Pacquiao fighting Cotto, who Arum also promotes.
I guess it’s easier for Arum and at the same time helps another one of his fighters. I don’t think the move helps Pacquiao, though, and in fact I can’t see it bringing Pacquiao nearly as much money that he’d make in fights against Mayweather Jr. or Mosley.
There’s also a risk in taking a fight with Cotto first, because it’s not going to be an easy fight and there’s a strong possibility that Cotto will beat Pacquiao. If that happens, you can forget about Pacquiao fighting Mayweather or Mosley.
As such, Pacquiao gets a smaller payday against Cotto, and then losses out on the likely bigger money against Mosley and Mayweather. If I were Pacquiao, I would think about it long and hard before I let my promoter rush into a fight that had a lot of risk with little reward.
Cotto is a fine fighter, but he should be the 3rd option for Pacquiao, not the first one. It seems like Arum has things backwards, and is pushing Pacquiao into the least good option. Pacquiao needs to take the tougher fights with the bigger reward first, because there’s no guarantee that he’ll even make it to a fight against Mayweather if Pacquiao has to go through Cotto first.
I think Pacquiao did a commendable job against Ricky Hatton, whom he beat by a 2nd round knockout last weekend. However, there’s a big difference between fighting someone like Cotto and fighting Hatton, who appears to have lost his ability to take a punch.
Cotto will likely be able to take Pacquiao’s power shots without going down easily like Hatton, which means that unless Pacquiao has a good chin himself, he’s going to be in for a brutal war for as long as it lasts against Cotto.
I like Pacquiao, but Cotto is a very powerful fighter and a legitimate welterweight, and even though Cotto would have to come in at a 142 catch weight, I don’t see it crippling him like it did De La Hoya when he was forced to come in at 147.
Cotto is young and will make the weight without any problem and will probably re-hydrate up to near 160. I don’t care how fast Pacquiao is, having to deal with a 160 pound slugger like Cotto will be a very tough obstacle for him to get through. Like I said, I think this is the wrong move for Pacquiao to take this fight.
He needs to speak up and tell his promoter he wants to go after the money fights first, and then end with what will likely be a lesser paying bout against Cotto. It won’t matter by then whether Pacquiao wins or loses because he will have already taken on two of the biggest fighters available at 147.
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