By Manuel Perez: Since moving up from super featherweight in June 2008 to capture the World Boxing Council lightweight title with a 9th round stoppage over David Diaz, Manny Pacquiao has been put in with bigger and more powerful fighters in Oscar De La Hoya and Ricky Hatton. Thus far, Pacquiao has been able to continue being successful, beating both De La Hoya and most recently Hatton by stoppages. However, I think that Pacquiao is pretty much reaching the limits of what he’s capable of achieving by beating the talented by flawed De La Hoya and Hatton.

If Pacquiao keeps getting pushed against better and more powerful fighters like Miguel Cotto, Shane Mosley and Floyd Mayweather, Pacquiao will most surely lose and lose big. Pacquiao has had it good in his two fights with Hatton and De La Hoya, because neither of them were at the top of their game by the time that Pacquiao got to them.

In De La Hoya’s case, he was an old part time boxer by the time that Pacquiao fought him, and not nearly the same fighter he was years earlier. To add to De La Hoya’s troubles, he was forced to strip off a lot of weight to fight at 147, a weight class he hadn’t fought at in years.

This made it even easier for Pacquiao to get the win. Had this fight taken place in 1995-1999, I have no doubts that De La Hoya would have knocked Pacquiao without too much trouble. Hatton had his own problems by the time he fought Pacquiao. Hatton had been knocked out by Floyd Mayweather Jr. in December 2007, and the combination of the knockout and Hatton’s hard lifestyle of binge eating and drinking and having to take off excessive amounts of weight each time made Hatton only a shadow of the fighter he was in 2003.

Again, Pacquiao got another weakened fighter who had seen better days. However, it seems that neither Pacquiao nor his ambitious trainer Freddie Roach understand who Pacquiao just beat. The way they go on about it, you’d think that Pacquiao just beat a prime Hatton and De La Hoya.

Sometimes people delude themselves with their accomplishments, and see things how they like to see them rather than how things really are. I think that Pacquiao is letting these shallow victories go to his head and is about to go for the ultimate overreach by trying to take on a fighter like Cotto or Mosley who are not weakened or old, and who will make the 142 pound catch weight without losing power.

Believe me, it will be an eye opener for Pacquiao, because I see him being beaten by Cotto or Mosley, and especially Floyd Mayweather Jr. These are three fighters that aren’t dealing with some problem that’s impacting their performances like De La Hoya and Hatton. Pacquiao is going to go into a fight with one of them, thinking that he can repeat what he did to De La Hoya and Hatton.

That’s not going to happen, and it’s going to be amusing looking at Freddie Roach scrambling around trying to implement plan B, C, D and E, all without success. In the end, Pacquiao will get beaten badly, and Roach will have egg on his face for having pushed Pacquiao beyond his limitations.

Pacquiao is a good fighter, but he’s not big enough or strong enough to beat a quality welterweight like Miguel Cotto or Shane Mosley. Heck, you can add Paul Williams and Andre Berto to the mix, along with perhaps five to eight more welterweights. Just as long as they’re weight starved, old or having problems with their punch resistance, I see them all beating the likes of Pacquiao.