By Chris Williams: World Boxing Organization welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao is going to get a chance to win his 8th world title when he faces two-time world champion Antonio Margarito on November 13th at a still to be determined venue. According to boxing news from the Inquirer.net, the 31-year-old Pacquiao will be fighting Margarito at a “catch weight not exceeding 150 pounds.” Well, let’s do the math. If the junior middleweight upper limit for the division is 154, then Pacquiao will be fighting at four pounds under the limit, and only three pounds above the 147 pound welterweight limit. I suppose that is a catch weight that meets around the midpoint between the welterweight and junior middleweight division.

But how can Pacquiao feel good about not fighting at the full weight for the division? I don’t understand that at all. I personally could never do that because I would feel like I was using a crutch in order to fight at that level, and if I won the fight, I wouldn’t feel like I really deserved the title. I can understand a catch weight if there’s a wide gulf between two fighters, but I don’t think a catch weight should ever involve a title. I think it’s wrong to have to fighters fighting a catch weight for a title. A catch weight sets boundaries for a given fight and since the junior middleweight division goes up to 154, it’s basically rewriting the rules for that one fight.

Margarito is the bigger fighter at 5’11” compared to the 5’6” Pacquiao, so any catch weight that limits how high you can go will naturally hurt Margarito much more than Pacquiao. Margarito hasn’t looked like the same fighter he used to be in his past two fights, and I don’t see how a catch weight is really even needed to beat him. He’s slow as molasses, doesn’t use his long reach, has no defense, comes straight at his opponents, and throws wide shots in close. Margarito is the perfect victim for Pacquiao. So why would a catch weight be needed when you got a fighter that is so tailor made for Pacquiao, and who appears to be fading fast in terms of his fighting ability.

If anything, I think Margarito is the one that needs a huge handicap in this fight, not Pacquiao. They need to have something written in the contract where Pacquiao won’t jump all over Margarito until at least the 10th round, so that boxing fans can be assured to get their monies worth out of this fight and so that Margarito has at least a sliver of a chance of winning. But to have handicap that favors Pacquiao, when he already has everything going in his favor for this fight, just seems wrong. I feel sorry for Margarito. He’s got basically no chance in this fight, and the catch weight of 150 will make things even worse for him. If Bob Arum and Pacquiao want this to be an entertaining fight, they need to lose the idea of using a catch weight.