By Jim Dower: Manny Pacquiao will be looking for more than just a victory over World Boxing Organization welterweight champion Miguel Cotto this Saturday night at the MGM Grand, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Pacquiao will be seeking out his 7th world title in seven different weight classes. It’s almost an unheard of accomplishment, because for a fighter who started out as a skinny flyweight, it’s huge that Pacquiao could gain 30 pounds and win a 7th world title at welterweight.

It’s being made a little bit easier for Pacquiao, because he’s being allowed to fight for the title at a 145 pound catch weight rather than the full 147 pound limit for the division. However, few boxing fans will know about that or care much as long as Pacquiao wins the fight. Perhaps even more fans won’t really care about Pacquiao’s title, and will focus more on just the battle between him and Cotto. Extra statistics like title information are usually reserved for the hardcore boxing fan rather than casual ones who could care less about that kind of information.

Cotto has only been beaten once in his career, a 11th round knockout defeat by Antonio Margarito last year. Cotto isn’t going to be making it easy for Pacquiao to pick up his 7th world title, although many boxing fans are under the impression that Pacquiao will easily win the fight on Saturday night. Pacquiao will have to jump on Cotto early and try to take advantage of Cotto’s slow hand speed if he wants to take him out.

As the fight moves on into the later rounds, Cotto’s power may start to show it’s effects on Pacquiao, the smaller fighter. Freddie Roach is predicting a 1st round knockout win for Pacquiao on Saturday night. Roach sounds as if he’s deadly serious about his prediction.

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Brewster vs. Pianeta on December 5th

Former World Boxing Organization heavyweight champion Lamon Brewster (35-5, 30 KO’s) will be fighting replacement opponent European Boxing Union heavyweight champion Francesco Pianeta (19-0, 12 KO’s) on December 5th. Brewster, 36, was scheduled to face Swedish heavyweight prospect Robert Helenius on the same date. However, the 6’6” Helenius injured his hand during his recent win over Taras Bidenko last Saturday night and his hand wouldn’t be healed quick enough for him to take on the dangerous Brewster by then.

Never the less, Brewster in a situation where he can’t afford to lose. Brewster was defeated in his last fight against prospect Gbenga Oloukun in an eight round decision loss in August 2009. Brewster did little in the first four rounds of the fight and then came on in the 2nd half of the bout and landed the harder shots. It was Brewster’s third fight since coming off a year layoff after a disappointing 6th round stoppage defeat against IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko in July 2007.

Brewster’s going to have to do better than he did in the Oloukun fight if he wants to beat the 6’5” Pianeta. This is an opponent that is very beatable for Brewster as long as he lets his hands go, because Pianeta isn’t very fast and is rather limited offensively and defensively. Pianeta has a good left hand, but that’s about it.

His hand speed is slow, his work rate is only slightly better than Brewster’s and he tends to swell up around the eyes when getting hit. In his last fight, Pianeta defeated 42-year-old Matt Skelton in an 8th round stoppage in September 2009. Skelton looked bad in the fight, showing no power and laboring with his shots. However, despite being the much younger fighter at 25, Pianeta looked only slightly better. Brewster can win this fight if he stays on Pianeta, lands his shots and doesn’t give up rounds by not throwing enough punches.