By Manuel Perez: Manny Pacquiao and his team are looking to get Miguel Cotto to melt down to an energy draining 142 or 143, and don’t want to fight Cotto at 145, which had previously been mentioned as the weight that was an agreeable number. It’s unknown why the move is afoot to get Cotto to trim down to the lower weight of 142/143, but it could be that Pacquiao and his team are getting cold feet about the fight.

Cotto, 28, is resisting the request to come in at a lighter weight after his nutritionist said that 145 is as light as Cotto can get without hurting his body. Pacquiao wants Cotto in at the lighter weight, a move which would make it much easier for Pacquiao to beat him obviously.

Although Pacquiao has a win over Oscar De La Hoya at 147, it was fight where Oscar was weakened after having to melt down from 154 to make the fight. The weight loss effectively rendered De La Hoya harmless as a kitten, so weak that probably anyone with two gloves and a moderate amount of talent would have beaten him.

Cotto doesn’t want to have to melt down to this weight, but Shane Mosley, who is considered to be the best fighter in the welterweight division at this point, has no problem with coming down to as low as 142. However, Pacquiao doesn’t want to fight Mosley for some reason.

Cotto looked horrible in his last fight, a 12-round split decision victory over Joshua Clottey on June 13th. Cotto looked almost shot against Clottey, as if he was still feeling the after effects of his 11th round knockout loss to Antonio Margarito a year earlier.

Cotto isn’t the same fighter he was prior to the Margarito fight, and hence shouldn’t even be the one that Pacquiao is gunning for if he is trying to make a statement for himself. If Pacquiao wanted to show people something, he would go after Mosley, Paul Williams or Juan Manuel Marquez.

Ricky Hatton essentially didn’t have to drain down to fight Pacquiao, but he was weakened just the same because of his hard life style and his loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr. in 2007.