By Manuel Perez: Although this is a decent fight, I’m not grateful for next month’s November 14th bout between Miguel Cotto and Manny Pacquiao. It’s being portrayed as being the best against the best, but I don’t see Cotto as being the best fighter in the welterweight division, so I’m not all impressed as I would be if Pacquiao was fighting Shane Mosley, Floyd Mayweather or Paul Williams.

Cotto is a good fighter, and will probably beat Pacquiao anyway, but he’s not seen as the best in the welterweight division. So, I’m not grateful for this fight. I’m also not grateful for the catch weight that Cotto will have to fight at, and yet still have his World Boxing Organization title on the line. I think that’s wrong. Unless Pacquiao is willing to fight him at the full welterweight limit, I don’t see how the title could be on the line.

I don’t care if Cotto agreed to it; I still think it’s wrong by putting a handicap in for Pacquiao. I know Freddie Roach, Pacquiao’s trainer, says that Cotto will be a lot heavier on the night of the fight, but Cotto will also be a lot weaker because of having to come in lighter a day earlier to make the catch weight of 145 pounds at the weigh in.

Pacquiao has beaten a shot Oscar De La Hoya and Ricky Hatton in his last two fights. Those fights have raised Pacquiao’s stock to the point where even some so-called boxing experts think that Pacquiao will beat every welterweight in the division, including Floyd Mayweather Jr. I’m not grateful for people who overestimate others based on performances against lesser fighters. That saddens me.

If Cotto had just recently wiped the deck with David Diaz, Hatton and De La Hoya, would I get excited about him and start calling him the greatest pound for pound fighter on the planet? No, I wouldn’t, and I would laugh at any boxing expert that said Cotto was the best based on wins over those aforementioned fighters. Now, if Cotto turned around and actually beat Antonio Margarito in a rematch, and then followed it up with wins over Mosley and Paul Williams, then I would say that Cotto is the best fighter around. But he’ll probably never fight Margarito and Mosley again, and if he did chances are he’d lose.

Williams, I think, would beat Cotto. I see Williams as welterweight and a light middleweight, just so you know. He had to move up in weight temporarily because none of the top welterweights wanted to fight him.

Okay, so I’m not grateful for the Cotto-Pacquiao fight because I see Pacquiao fighting a good welterweight but not the best in the division. Don’t care that Cotto once beat Mosley a couple of years ago in 2007. I don’t think he would do it now, and based on Mosley’s win over Cotto conqueror Margarito, I see Mosley as the best fighter in the welterweight division. That’s who Pacquiao and his team should have selected instead of Cotto. They didn’t and I’m left to wonder why.

I see Cotto as the 4th best welterweight in the division after #1 Mosley, #2 Mayweather, and #3 Margarito. Okay, so the Cotto vs. Pacquiao fight is nothing special to me, although I see it as a vaguely interesting bout. If Pacquiao wins, he’ll prove to me that he can beat a top #4 welterweight in the division, albeit with a handicap for weight.