By Dave Lahr: With Manny Pacquiao’s 2nd round TKO over Ricky Hatton last Saturday night at the MGM Grand, Pacquiao suddenly becomes the biggest name in boxing and can pick and choose whom he wants to fight. There’s a variety of fighters that Pacquiao can fight, such as Shane Mosley, Miguel Cotto, Edwin Valero, and Humberto Soto, but the one fighter that stands out way ahead of the rest is Floyd Mayweather Jr., the former pound-for-pound number #1 fighter in boxing.
Up until Mayweather retired in December 2007 after stopping Hatton in the 10th round, Mayweather was considered the best fighter in the sport. Now, two years later that title has gone over to Pacquiao, who won’t be easily giving it up without a hard fight. Recently, there has been news about Pacquiao possibly fighting Miguel Cotto next.
Frankly, I think that’s a crummy idea. Cotto, now the World Boxing Organization welterweight champion, is only one fight removed from his 11th round destruction by Antonio Margarito in July 2008. It doesn’t matter that Margarito was caught up in a hand wrap issue in his last fight with Mosley, the fact remains that Cotto was beaten badly only two fights ago by Margarito and Miguel still hasn’t really come back from that as far as redeeming himself to the fans.
A win over Britain’s Michael Jennings proves little for Cotto, because to show that he’s really back he should beat a quality welterweight like Paul Williams. Beating Jennings doesn’t do it for me. This is why I think Pacquiao needs to veto a fight with Cotto, and tell his promoter that he wants a fight with Mayweather Jr. instead.
A fight against Cotto is risky too. Not only will it not make nearly as much money as a fight with Mayweather Jr, but it also brings much of the same dangers for the shorter, smaller Pacquiao.
For me, that’s a stupid fight and not worth the risk for Pacquiao. If Cotto’s promoter wants him to fight someone, let them put Cotto in with Paul Williams and then he can have his mini-mega fight.
I think Cotto would lose and lose badly, but at least he’d be facing a real challenge instead of fighters like Jennings, Alfonso Gomez, Zab Judah or Oktay Urkal.
Mayweather, 32, has a fight coming up with Juan Manuel Marquez in July. This should be a tough test for the ring rusty Mayweather, since Floyd will be taking the fight without a tune-up of any kind. However, I fully expect that we’ll be seeing the Mayweather of old and will see him get by Marquez without too many problems.
Once Mayweather beats Marquez, as long as there’s no bad cuts sustained in the fight by Mayweather, I suspect that he’ll be ready to go for a bout against Pacquiao in November of this year. That’s only six months away, and not long for Pacquiao to have to wait for him. If Manny does have to fight before then, he needs to go up against a soft opponent like Amir Khan or Valero.
Neither of them is any good as far as I’m concerned and I think Pacquiao could destroy both of them within two or three rounds. Khan would likely last longer than Valero because he would literally be running for his life. Khan’s trainer, Freddie Roach, would devise an ingenious scheme which would likely be centered on Khan using a ton of movement.
It wouldn’t change anything other than delaying his eventual knockout by a round or two. With Valero, he doesn’t move well and would come plodding forward against Pacquiao and get immediately knocked out. Valero has little hand speed and it would be like a fighter punching in slow motion against a blur.
Pacquiao would lance Valero quickly with a few big shots and knock him out by the end of the 1st round. The fight would be awful as far as a competitive fight goes, but it would be a good stay busy fight for Pacquiao while he waits for Mayweather Jr. to get finished with his bout with Marquez.
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