Boxing – Is Pacquiao Afraid to Fight Cotto at 147?

By Boxing News - 07/31/2009 - Comments

By Manuel Perez: Well, Manny Pacquiao only has himself and his trainer Freddie Roach to blame for this latest fiasco with World Boxing Organization welterweight champion Miguel Cotto about the title not being on the line for the fight. If Pacquiao and Roach wanted the title to be up for grabs in the fight, they shouldn’t have requested for Cotto to take the fight at a 145 pound catch weight rather than the upper 147 welterweight limit.

That’s on them. Cotto has drawn a line in the sand and won’t be putting his WBO title on the line for this fight unless Pacquiao agrees to fight at 147. Pacquiao can solve all this if he just agrees to fight at the maximum welterweight limit and forget about all this catch weight nonsense.

If he wants the title, then do what all fighters do when competing for a title in the welterweight division, agree to fight at 147.

If Pacquiao can’t do it, then he needs to forget about fighting for the WBO title, because it isn’t happening. I wonder what Pacquiao is hesitant about? First he was hesitant to give Juan Manuel Marquez a rematch after winning a controversial 12 round split decision over him last year in March, and now he’s resistant to fighting Cotto at the full 147 weight limit of the welterweight division, yet he still wants Cotto’s title on the line.

Why stop there? As it is, I couldn’t count a win over Cotto as being legitimate if Cotto is forced to put his title on the line at a catch weight.

That’s not fighting for a title, to me. That’s more like some kind of circus like exhibition bout, a stay busy bout, rather than a true title fight. This is all show business stuff, like a side show event in my view. It isn’t a world title fight if both fighters aren’t coming in at the normal weight for the division, as far as I’m concerned.

Cotto is saying that he’ll vacate the WBO title if the World Boxing Organization tries to exert pressure for him to put his WBO title on the line for the fight. It looks as if that might actually happen because the WBO are on board with Miguel’s title being on the line for this fight, even though the bout won’t be held at the normal welterweight limit of 147.

Pacquiao needs to forget about the catch weight take the fight at the normal weight.



Comments are closed.