Why Does Pacquiao Seem to Skip Over the Best Fighters?

By Boxing News - 07/01/2009 - Comments

By Manuel Perez: On November 14th, Manny Pacquiao will be fighting World Boxing Organization welterweight champion Miguel Cotto at the MGM Grand, in Las Vegas.

In Pacquiao’s last two fights, he has fought Oscar De La Hoya and Ricky Hatton. I don’t know about you, but I don’t consider this version of De La Hoya as a worthwhile fight. If this was eight years ago, then, yeah, by all means I think he’d be a perfect opponent for Pacquiao.

Same thing with Hatton, except that he hasn’t looked like the same fighter since 2007. If Pacquiao were fighting Hatton in 2006 or 2007, I could respect that, but not now. Hatton should have been nowhere near the ring on May 2nd, because he wasn’t in condition for a fight.

Instead of fighting Hatton, Pacquiao should have fought Timothy Bradley. He’s probably the best light welterweight in the division since last year, and I can’t see why Pacquiao would want to avoid that fight. Why is that?

In the past three years, Pacquiao has been fighting a list of old timers in Erik Morales, Marco Antonio Barrera and De La Hoya, rather than the talented fighters that still have something left like Nate Campbell, Humberto Soto, Marcos Maidana, and Bradley.

The one good choice that Pacquiao made was his fight against Juan Manuel Marquez, and he ended up losing a controversial 12-round decision to Pacquiao. Predictably, Marquez wasn’t given a rematch after that fight and Pacquiao moved onto his recent fights against De La Hoya and Hatton.

That is really bad. Marquez deserved a rematch but instead he gets passed over for the old De La Hoya and a pretty much washed up Hatton. Now, Pacquiao is going after a welterweight in Miguel Cotto, but instead of fighting Shane Mosley, the fighter that is considered to be the top fighter in the division by many, Pacquiao is going after Cotto.

This choice of an opponent is a year late for Pacquiao, because Cotto was already beaten to a pulp by Antonio Margarito and then Cotto got a gift decision in his last fight with a 12-round split decision over Joshua Clottey. How in the world could Pacquiao want to face Cotto when he’s essentially been beaten in two out of his last three fights? What is that?

And if that wasn’t bad enough, Cotto will have to come in at a catch weight of 145 pounds so that he’s small enough (read: weak enough) for Pacquiao to fight him. Like I said before, you might as well tell Cotto that he has to fight on Pacquiao while on his knees so that Manny has enough of a handicap to win.

If it were me, I’d say forget that. I won’t fight Cotto until he proves that he can beat Margarito and Clottey. I don’t know why but Pacquiao seems to always take the easy fights. Why doesn’t he fight Marquez again or why doesn’t he man up and fight Paul Williams or Shane Mosley. If you want to fight the best in the division, you got to go after the top guys, not the ones like Cotto that was just beaten twice.



Comments are closed.