By Manuel Perez: World Boxing Organization welterweight champion Miguel Cotto made it clear that he doesn’t care one bit if Floyd Mayweather decides to fight Manny Pacquiao instead of him after he [Cotto] gets through beating Pacquiao next month. “If Team Mayweather and Team Pacquiao want to fight, I don’t give a crap what they do after I defeat Manny,” Cotto said in an interview with El Nuevodia.
Cotto probably expects that he’ll be bypassed by Mayweather and isn’t going to lose sleep over the matter by complaining about it. Mayweather does things his own way and it’s hard to understand his reasons for choosing a certain fighter sometimes. Pacquiao no doubt will likely take the fight with Mayweather next, because it will be the best fight out there for him and his management, and trainer Freddie Roach, will want him to take the fight.
Even if Pacquiao is badly beaten by Cotto, the Mayweather fight still makes the most sense for Pacquiao. After big money fights against Oscar De La Hoya, Ricky Hatton and Cotto, Pacquiao won’t want to have to take on a lesser fighter where he would make much less money.
Although it would be a idea for Pacquiao to fight a tune-up if he loses to Cotto, the pressure on Pacquiao to maximize the money he makes will probably be too great for him to waste time on a tune-up. Pacquiao will then jump straight from a loss into a fight against Mayweather, which as many people expect, will be another big loss for Pacquiao.
It’s all good, though, because Pacquiao can cry all the way to the bank. It would be sad that boxing fans would prefer to see Mayweather fight Pacquiao rather than Cotto if Pacquiao loses badly to Cotto next month on November 14th.
But that shows you how much the boxing fans really know about the sport. Probably a good deal of them won’t even realize that Pacquiao has lost to Cotto, and the other half – read: Pacquiao’s lovesick fans – won’t care one bit that Pacquiao was beaten. They’ll back him up no matter what happens in the Cotto fight. They’re fans and they would come see Pacquiao fight even if he were beaten 100 times in a row.
Cotto may end up fighting Pacquiao again immediately if the fight does extremely well. Arranging a fight between Mayweather and Pacquiao won’t be an easy task because Mayweather wants more money. Cotto, depending on how badly he does against Pacquiao, could want more money than last time, but probably not nearly as much as Mayweather would be asking for.
It’s a fight that makes sense if a Mayweather bout is too difficult to put together. Mayweather will still be there after Cotto fights Pacquiao for a second time. By then, Mayweather will possibly be more agreeable to a fight with a reasonable purse split between him and Pacquiao.
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