By Manuel Perez: In an interview with elnuevodia, WBO welterweight champion Miguel Cotto said that he could care less if he has to fight Manny Pacquiao at the 145 pound catch weight that he and his management team want him to fight. Saying “it does not matter if it is at 145 pounds. That was the weight that we said from the beginning and it’s my range. I will increase it by eight to ten pounds [by fight time].” Cotto also said that he was no impressed with Pacquiao’s recent fights, commenting “he [Pacquiao] has two arms and so do I.”
Cotto, 28, isn’t much for criticizing his opponents, and that was about as far as Cotto was willing to go while giving his thoughts on Pacquiao. It’s hard not to agree with Cotto, however, about Pacquiao, because the Filipino star really hasn’t beaten anyone of note for awhile.
The victories over Oscar De La Hoya and Ricky Hatton are both well tainted because both of them were rather shot at the time that Pacquiao fought them. Before that, Pacquiao looked bad in his second fight with Juan Manuel Marquez, and even though beating him by a 12-round split decision, Pacquiao looked like the loser in that fight.
Pacquiao achieved a lot at featherweight, but failed to clear out the division at super featherweight and prove that he was the best in that division. Boxing being the sport it is, Pacquiao was considered to the best at super featherweight even though he never beat Humberto Sotto or proved that he was good enough to beat Marquez.
Pacquiao moved up from super featherweight anyway after his controversial victory over Marquez. Given what Pacquiao has done in the past couple of years, it’s not surprising that Marquez isn’t the least bit impressed with his performances.
Part of what has made Pacquiao look so bad is his reluctance to give a rematch with Marquez. For some reason, Pacquiao and his fans see his victory over Marquez as being conclusive despite what many people elsewhere in the world think.
Pacquiao has since gone about his business since the controversial win over Marquez and has moved on without proving a thing. Cotto obviously sees what a lot of boxing fans see when they take a look at Pacquiao, and aren’t impressed with what he’s accomplished in the past couple of years in the ring.
Cotto is coming off a 12 round decision over Joshua Clottey in June, a fight where Cotto didn’t look all that great. By not looking great, however, it heightened Pacquiao’s interest in fighting him. It’s kind of sad that it took a bad performance by Cotto to make Pacquiao interested in fighting him.
If it were me, I would want to go after Marquez or the best welterweight in the division Paul Williams, not Cotto who still hasn’t proven that he’s the same fighter after his knockout loss to Antonio Margarito last year. Fight fans are torn over the Pacquiao-Cotto fight. Some say it’s good fight, while others wonder why Pacquiao is fighting the tarnished Cotto and not Marquez, Mayweather or Paul Williams.
Comments are closed.