By Manuel Perez: Even though Shane Mosley was willing to meet Manny Pacquiao at the lower catch weight of 140 compared to Miguel Cotto at 145, Pacquiao chose to fight Cotto instead. Mosley was willing to take a smaller revenue split as well, yet Pacquiao still chose to fight Cotto. So based on that, did Pacquiao avoid fighting Mosley for what many people perceive to be the easier fight against Cotto?
It’s true that Cotto has a 12 round decision win over Mosley in 2007, but Cotto doesn’t look to be the same fighter he was back then. He was beaten badly in a loss to Antonio Margarito last year and hasn’t looked the same since then. Cotto looked less than convincing in beating Joshua Clottey in a 12 round split decision last month.
Pacquiao is a great fighter, but it seems like he did a duck job in bypassing a fight against Mosley for a bout against Cotto. If Mosley wasn’t fighting so well right now, I could understand Pacquiao not wanting to fight him. But the fact remains that Mosley just recently defeated arguably the toughest fighter in the welterweight division in Antonio Margarito. So why isn’t Pacquiao fighting Mosley rather than Cotto?
I suppose it could be a style nightmare for the smaller Pacquiao to fight someone like Mosley, who is stronger and quicker than Pacquiao and has a better chin as well. This wouldn’t be a fight where Pacquiao would be fighting the weight drained Oscar De La Hoya or Ricky Hatton, who people saw as not the same fighter he once was, Erik Morales or Marco Antonio Barrera.
In this case, Pacquiao would be facing his toughest test in over a year since his right with Juan Manuel Marquez last year. Some people say that Pacquiao has always had reservations about fighting Mosley and now with Mosley pretty much dropping for the ten count to give Pacquiao this or that kind of handicap advantage, it still isn’t enough for him to overcome his deep down fear of Mosley. Pacquiao did struggle against the highly skilled Marquez.
I hope that’s not the case, but if it is, it’s truly sad because Pacquiao is being hyped by many boxing people to be the number #1 pound for pound fighter in boxing. Normally a fighter that is considered to be the best fighter in the sport isn’t afraid of fighting a fighter that is considered to be just as good, like Mosley. U
That would explain a lot, wouldn’t it? Things were easy for Pacquiao and Roach to dismiss a fight with Mosley earlier when he said that he wasn’t interested in coming down to 143. However, when Mosley stepped up and called their bluff by saying that he would not only come down to 143, he’d also be willing to fight Pacquiao at an even lower weight than that by fighting him at 140.
This offer fell on deaf ears and was seemingly ignored by Pacquiao’s management team. It seems as if Pacquiao’s management team were never seriously interested in a fight with Mosley, because if they were, the 140 and the offer of a smaller pay cut, they should have been enough to make the fight happen.
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