By Chris Williams: If WBA junior middleweight champion Yuri Foreman puts the finish on Miguel Cotto this Saturday night, and if Manny Pacquiao isn’t able to have a fight put together between him and Floyd Mayweather Jr., then I think Pacquiao needs to fight Foreman next rather than someone else like Antonio Margarito. It’s only fair. Pacquiao is ready to take on Cotto if he beats Foreman, so why not fight Foreman if he beats Cotto?

Top Rank promoter Bob Arum is saying that Pacquiao doesn’t want to fight the 5’11” Foreman because he’s too tall for him to fight. But the weird thing is Pacquiao isn’t afraid to fight the 5’11” Margarito. What’s up with that? If they’re both the same height, with the same reach and Margarito has the better offensive skills, then why doesn’t Pacquiao fight Foreman?

I have a pretty good idea. It’s probably because Pacquiao and his trainer Freddie Roach have both seen how good Foreman is and don’t want any part of him. I can understand that and Pacquiao’s reluctance to fight Foreman is the highest form of respect that he could give him. Forget about Foreman being too tall. That isn’t what it is.

He’s just too dammed good and Pacquiao doesn’t want any part of the talented Rabbi in training Foreman. In can respect that. Foreman is very talented and will probably do a real number on Cotto this Saturday night at the Yankee Stadium, in New York. Roach and Pacquiao probably already have a good idea that Foreman is going to win, and that’s why he’s not even being considered as an opponent. That’s too bad, because I think Foreman would literally box circles around Pacquiao all night long and batter and beat him.

Pacquiao is good against fighters that stand in one place all night long and let him get his shots off unimpeded. But Foreman will be moving constantly around the ring, shooting jabs, landing hooks and piercing Pacquiao’s mediocre defense with powerful stinging right hands.

Pacquiao likes to work in close and land his shoe shine punches, but the tall Foreman would wrap his arms around Pacquiao in a tight clinch and prevent him from getting his shots off. Once they’re separated, Foreman would continue to land hard jabs from the distance, tagging Pacquiao in the face repeatedly and then coming at him with hard right hands followed by a clinch. This isn’t the kind of opponent that Pacquiao can succeed against and that’s probably why he doesn’t want to fight him.

But with Pacquiao getting all kinds of awards left and right for being such a great fighter, it’s time that he start earning these awards by taking on tough fighters like Foreman to prove that he’s the real deal and not someone that has been put in with a bunch of fighters that have been coming off loses or are near retirement. You can’t get much better than Foreman with his unbeaten record of 28-0. By Saturday night, Foreman could be 29-0, and ready for a fight against Pacquiao, if he would only step and fight him.