By Sean McDaniel: If Top Rank promoter Bob Arum is unable to get the mega fight that he wants between his fighter World Boxing Organization (WBO) welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao (51-3-2, 38 KO’s) and unbeaten Floyd Mayweather Jr. (41-0, 25 KO’s), then Arum is willing to wait until 2011 for the mega to take place. In the meantime, Arum will keep the 31-year-old Pacquiao busy fighting his Top Rank stars WBA junior middleweight champion Miguel Cotto and former two-time welterweight champion Antonio Margarito.
There’s probably no limit to the amount of times that Arum is willing and can match Pacquiao up with either of those two, so time isn’t really issue for Arum. As long as Pacquiao is willing to stick around long enough for the Mayweather bout to eventually take place, Arum will be keeping Pacquiao busy fighting Cotto and Margarito until that day, which hopefully is soon. Cotto will probably get the call first for a rematch with Pacquiao. It doesn’t matter that Pacquiao destroyed Cotto only eight months ago.
There’s still some fans that either didn’t see that fight or just plain love Pacquiao and Cotto enough to plunk down $50 to see what will likely be another one-sided massacre for Manny. Cotto has done a little bit to come back from his 12th round destruction from Pacquiao, beating WBA junior middleweight champion Yuri Foreman by a 9th round stoppage in June. The fight was marred by the fact that Foreman injured his right knee in the 7th just when the fight was heating up. Hard to say if Cotto would have won the fight or not, because it was pretty close at the time the injury took place.
Cotto was taking shots about as much as he usually does despite using his jab a little more. Its doubtful Cotto’s jab would keep Pacquiao off of him for more than two seconds. As such, a rematch between Cotto and Pacquiao will be much like the first fight with Pacquiao beating the stuffing out of Cotto for as long as it lasts. Hopefully, Cotto can make it more interesting than last time because he was running for his life by the 3rd round.
In an article by Nick Gionco at Mb.com.ph, Arum, speaking about the Mayweather-Pacquiao mega fight, said “It’s up to Mayweather if he wants to fight this year or next year.” Arum has sent Mayweather the contract, which is ready for Mayweather to sign after he’s looked it over. Apparently, Golden Boy Promotions has agreed to the contract terms. The only thing that is now needed is for Mayweather to sign the contract. He may not do if there’s something in there that he’s not happy with.
Dan Rafael of ESPN said that Mayweather wasn’t in agreement with all the points that are in the contract, so he may ignore Arum’s mid-July deadline to agree to the contract and instead look for another option that he seems more appealing than signing something he’s not happy with.
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