By Chris Williams: Trainer Emanuel Steward believes a rematch between his fighter former World Boxing Organization welterweight champion Miguel Cotto and Manny Pacquiao is a possibility. Cotto was stopped in the 12th round by Pacquiao last November in a one-sided defeat which saw Cotto get knocked down two times and totally dominated by the faster Pacquiao. Steward had this to say in an interview at Vocero, “It’s clear that it [a rematch between Pacquiao and Cotto] is possible. The fight between Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. will never happen, and if Miguel wants revenge, then Top Rank [the promoter for both Cotto and Pacquiao] will do everything possible so that they can put together this super battle.”

The thought of a rematch between Pacquiao and Cotto doesn’t exactly interest me all that much, as the first fight was a horrible mismatch. It’s far too soon for Pacquiao to be fighting a rematch when Cotto hasn’t even redeemed himself since that loss. Cotto will be fighting World Boxing Association light middleweight champion Yuri Foreman on June 19th at Yankee Stadium, in New York. If Cotto beats Foreman, which is a big ‘if’, then Cotto will have another belt that he could use as Pacquiao bait to lure the Filipino star into taking the fight.

As it is, there’s probably no point whatsoever in a rematch between Pacquiao and Cotto aside from just Cotto getting another payday from his promotional company. For me, I don’t see this as a fight that’s good for the sport of boxing. It’s not serving up a fight that the boxing public is demanding. If the fight is put together, it would be serving a smaller niche in the boxing public who want to see Pacquiao and Cotto fight regardless of the circumstances. Pacquiao would be perhaps better off going after WBC welterweight Andre Berto, then maybe Mayweather or Shane Mosley.

A fight against Mayweather might not be possible, as Steward points out, but that’s the fight that Top Rank needs to be putting effort into making happen. If Mayweather-Pacquiao doesn’t materialize, then Berto, a rematch with Juan Manuel Marquez or a fight against Paul Williams should be next for Pacquiao. I think anyone of those fighters would be good. I don’t like the idea of an Antonio Margarito-Pacquiao fight because Margarito hasn’t been active and needs to rebuild his career before facing someone like Pacquiao.

Cotto needs to take on several top fighters, get back to winning and show that he’s not a shot fighter. I don’t want to see him in an in house Top Rank fight against Pacquiao at this point after seeing how one-sided their previous fight was. Even if Cotto beats Foreman, it’s still early for me to want to see Cotto thrown back in with Pacquiao because there would no suspense. It would be like how badly will Cotto lose this time.

He wasn’t really competitive against Pacquiao and I can’t see him improving enough over a one fight period to give him any chance against Pacquiao. Cotto could probably fight Pacquiao 100 times and lose all 100 of those times. If boxing fans want to see this, then more power to them but I don’t see this as being an appealing fight.

If Arum wants to match Pacquiao against one of his Top Rank fighters, then I would prefer him fighting someone like Matt Korobov. That would be interesting only because Korobov would have a chance because of his greater size, I don’t see any other fighter in the Top Rank stable that I find an interesting match for Pacquiao. That doesn’t mean that he won’t be matched against them, because Arum will likely put Pacquiao in with Margarito if he can get his boxing license back, but I don’t want to see that fight. Margarito and Cotto need more time to rebuild and pick up some good wins before being put in with someone like Pacquiao.