By Manuel Perez: First it was Oscar De La Hoya having to come down to 147 to fight Manny Pacquiao and now it’s Miguel Cotto, who Pacquiao and his trainer want Cotto to come down to the 142 catch weight to meet Manny. 147 is no longer good enough, because the whole point is to have Cotto in terrible shape from being dehydrated by fight time that he’ll perform poorly enough so that Pacquiao can win.

How screwed up is that? You might as well have rules set for the fight saying that Cotto has to fight on his knees the whole time so that Pacquiao isn’t at a disadvantage by Cotto’s one inch height advantage or better yet, have Pacquiao stand on an empty wooden milk crate for the entire fight so that he can have the advantage of being taller.

You might as well do that, because asking a fighter to lose weight in order to fight isn’t sporting as far I’m concerned. If Pacquiao wants the acclaim and credit that goes with beating fighters like De La Hoya, Shane Mosley or Cotto, then Pacquiao should be expected to show some courage and fight the person that he’s interested in fighting at their weight level.

Don’t ask him to come down to some artificial weight that will give you the most advantage in the fight. To me that seems like a reptilian type move, something planned out in order to screw a fighter over and put them at a disadvantage.

Heck, why not have Cotto have his right arm tied behind his back and then make a deal with the writers not to point it out so that the casual fans are none the wiser. Pacquiao got a ton of credit for retiring De La Hoya in his beat down, but in looking at what De La Hoya had to do to take off the weight to fight Pacquiao, I can’t give Pacquiao one shred of credit for beating him.

If Pacquiao couldn’t meet De La Hoya at 154, then forget about the fight because it just means that it wasn’t possible to make happen due to the different sizes of the fighters. I know Pacquiao and his team want to get the credit that he might possibly receive if he can beat a fighter as talented as Cotto, but if it takes for Miguel to be horribly weight drained and weakened in order for Pacquiao to fight him, then what’s the point in it all?

Does Pacquiao need his opponents to be weight drained and weak for him to beat them? If that’s the case, then his so called pound-for-pound status as the number #1 fighter is a pathetic mirage in my view. Pacquiao may fool some people with his victory over a weight drained De La Hoya, but I’m not buying it.

I know that Pacquiao and his trainer Roach feel that they can call the shots now that Pacquiao has victories over Hatton and De La Hoya, but it’s ridiculous to have to make their opponents strip down in weight to the point where they’re weakened enough for Pacquiao to beat them.

You might as well brain them with a baseball bat before they go out for the first round, and let them stumble around while Pacquiao takes advantage of their poor physical state hitting them with his quick punches.

Pacquiao needs to wake up and tell his people to forget about this catch weight garbage and tell them he’ll beat Cotto fair and square and not put him in a position where he’s weakened from being weight drained.