By Eric Thomas: Freddie Roach is prepared for Miguel Cotto to pull a Floyd Mayweather Jr. move by coming in over the catch weight limit of 145 pounds for his November 14th bout against Manny Pacquiao at the MGM Grand. Roach said “I’m prepared for that possibility,” to the Sports. Inquirer. Cotto, 28, will have to come in two pounds under the maximum limit of 147 for his fight against Pacquiao.
However, there are some boxing people who think that Cotto might get a crazy idea to come in over the catch weight limit like Floyd Mayweather Jr. did in his bout last Saturday night against Juan Manuel Marquez and get an unfair advantage because of that. Mayweather was supposed to fight Marquez at a 144 pound catch weight. However, Mayweather came in two pounds heavier at 146, while Marquez, a lightweight, came in two pounds lighter than the 144 pound catch weight limit at 142.
There’s no question that Mayweather was the bigger and stronger fighter at the time of the fight, and he looked a lot bigger than Marquez by the time the fight started. There are some who speculate that Mayweather entered the ring at or near 160 for the fight.
We’ll never know for sure because Mayweather didn’t allow himself to be weighed the night of the fight. Previously, there was talk about a heavy fine for either fighter if they came in over the 145 pound catch weight limit. However, Roach says that’s not the case. If that is indeed true, then there’s really no point in Cotto sticking to the 145 pound catch weight, just as long as he comes in 147 so that he’s not over the limit and end up losing his World Boxing Organization welterweight title.
Mayweather was reportedly fined $300,000 per pound that he was over the catch weight limit, which came out to $600,000 for the two pounds that he was over. However, this wasn’t such a big deal for Mayweather because he had a guarantee of ten million dollars going into the fight, with possibly a lot more to gain if the fight ends up getting a lot of pay-per-view buys.
Roach says, “One or two pounds heavier, we are not worried. We have the best fighter [Pacquiao] here.” Let’s hope so. Marquez was a great fighter too coming into his fight with Mayweather last Saturday night, but the size issue was hard to ignore when you looked at Mayweather and Marquez. It’s good that Roach isn’t worried about it, but he’s not the one that will be taking the punches. Pacquiao will.
Comments are closed.