By Jason Kim: Although the Miguel Cotto vs. Manny Pacquiao bout still has yet to take place, Cotto, 28, is already licking his chops thinking about another fight between the two warriors. At yesterdays’ press conference, Cotto said “If this fight as good as we hope it will be and the public supports it, as we know they’re going to do, then why not have a rematch.” There’s something more than a little off putting seeing a fighter already looking forward to a rematch when the first fight hasn’t even taken place yet.

I don’t know if it’s me but that seems like some kind of self serving commercial move and makes me think of not wanting to see a rematch. Based on news reports, there’s no rematch clause in the Cotto-Pacquiao fight contract. That kind of makes sense because both of them are more interested in getting to the golden prize of fighting Floyd Mayweather Jr. or Juan Manuel Marquez, to a lesser extent, than in fighting each other again.

However, if it comes down to a match against Mayweather, it’s a no doubt a good thing to have a fall back plan to use if the negotiations with Mayweather suddenly start turning sour. Depending on how bad Mayweather looks against Marquez this Saturday night on September 19th, Cotto and Pacquiao might actually be better off fighting each other again than to fight Mayweather if he looks bad against Marquez.

The boxing public hasn’t seen an interesting fight from Mayweather since his 6th round stoppage win over Arturo Gatti four years ago in 2005. Mayweather has been essentially a hit and run fighter since that time, tending to pot shot and try to avoid getting hit in fights against Zab Judah, Carlos Baldomir, Oscar De La Hoya and Ricky Hatton. The boxing public has been in large part patient and forgiving of Mayweather despite his repeated dull fights over and over again, but I don’t know if the fans will stick behind Mayweather if he opts to run from Marquez on Saturday night.

There’s something unsettling somehow with the image of a fighter Mayweather’s size and ability running from a fighter two divisions smaller than him in Marquez. At that point, I have my doubts whether the boxing public could get behind a fight between Cotto and Mayweather or Pacquiao and Mayweather.

If you know the fight is going to have a lot of running, what’s the point in having to plunk down a large bundle of cash to watch it at ringside or on pay-per-view. In this day and age, boxing fans have other options available to him. This is why Cotto and Pacquiao might need to consider highly a rematch between them rather than stepping forward and taking a fight with Mayweather if he stinks up the joint against Marquez.

Mayweather is good enough to win without getting hit all that much. By using his hit and run fighting technique, Mayweather is almost impossible to beat. But that style will turn off fans quicker than anything and prove too many of them that Mayweather hasn’t changed a bit since retiring from boxing two years ago.