By Manuel Perez: Well, it looks as if Manny Pacquiao and his promoter are sniffing out a fight with Miguel Cotto, according to boxing news from Setanta Sports. How come I’m not surprised? Cotto looked absolutely horrible on Saturday night winning a controversial 12-round split decision against Joshua Clottey. Cotto looked ready to be knocked out from the 9th round on, taking big right hands, and moving constantly.
It looked like a replay of Cotto’s fight with Antonio Margarito from last July, except that Clottey didn’t have the work rate or stamina needed to put Cotto away. But believe me, Cotto was there for the taking and would have likely folded if Clottey had put some consistent pressure on Miguel instead of taking time off lying on the ropes. Cotto looked nothing like he did before Margarito got his hands on him.
I don’t think he’s exactly shot as a fighter, but he’s close, very close in my estimation. Forget about the cut Cotto sustained over his left eye in the third, that’s not why he was running so much. Cotto was moving because he was feeling the heat from Clottey and was having problems taking his big right hands.
Cotto couldn’t just stand and trade with Clottey without getting knocked out, because Miguel was getting drilled with uppercuts and had no defense against Clottey’s right hands to the head. That’s what got Cotto off and running in the fight.
And, yeah, I think Pacquiao would beat him now as bad as Cotto looked the other night. Heck, I’d pick at least six to eight welterweights in the top 10 that would have beaten Cotto on Saturday night. Unfortunately, Clottey didn’t have the stamina needed to get the job done, although he was real close for few rounds there. I still think Clottey beat Cotto.
Pacquiao was supposed to be waiting on the outcome of the Marquez-Mayweather fight, but that thing went belly up today when Floyd ended up with some kind of injury to one of his ribs. Now, Pacquiao has no other choice but to stay busy fighting someone.
Pacquiao’s promoter, Bob Arum, has made no secret to his desire to get Pacquiao in the ring with Cotto, another fighter that Arum just happens to promote. No way do I think Pacquiao would even have given Cotto a second glance had he not looked so crappy the other night.
But the way that Cotto looked the other night, it wouldn’t a fair fight between Pacquiao and Cotto. He doesn’t look like the same fighter anymore now that Margarito has done a number on him. Beating Cotto would be too easy, especially with Cotto having to agree to one of Pacquiao’s silly catch weight stipulations.
I can just see it. Cotto having to boil down to 142 or 143, and gets in the ring looking emaciated and instantly gets knocked out in his weakened condition. Cotto would probably be running like he was against Clottey, but it probably would only forestall the inevitable by a couple of rounds.
Personally, I think Cotto should tell Pacquiao to take a walk and find some other fighter that wants to fight him at his catch weights. What Cotto needs is a good long rest to try and clear his head from his beatings by Margarito and Clottey.
He’s taken too much punishment in both of those fights and doesn’t need another hard fight in the next six months. I don’t really know how Pacquiao is going to fight Cotto. If you saw the big rip in Cotto’s eyebrow, that thing is going to take ages to heal and I can’t see him being fit to fight in four months. Oh, he can fight alright but the scar tissue will probably pop open again as soon as Pacquiao hits him with anything hard and we’ll end up with a likely early stoppage due to the cut.
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