By Jason Kim: If Antonio Margarito (38-6, 27 KO’s) wants a fight with Manny Pacquiao (51-3-2, 38 KO’s) on November 13th, he’s going to have to agree to fight him at a 150 pound catch weight. According to the Manila Bulletin at Mb.com.ph, Pacquiao’s lawyer Franklin Gacal says “150 pounds,” in response to a question about weight the fight would be taking place at. Pacquiao and Margarito, both Top Rank fighters, will be fighting for the vacant World Boxing Council (WBC) junior middleweight title.

The division upper weight limit is 154. The lower limit for the division is 148, so Pacquiao would be fighting close to the midpoint of the division. Obviously, a catch weight like this will likely hurt Margarito to some extent. At 5’11”, he’s tall and slender, with a big frame. However, it probably doesn’t matter what weight that this fight takes place at.

You could put this fight at 160, and Margarito will still probably get drilled into the canvas by Pacquiao at some point in the fight. Margarito just lacks the hand speed, defense and the huge power to beat Pacquiao. Margarito used to be a big puncher at one time, but his power seems to have disappeared completely in his last two fights against Shane Mosley and Roberto Garcia.

For Pacquiao, this is basically a stay busy fight, a tune-up while he waits for Floyd Mayweather Jr. to come to the bargaining table. If the Margarito fight brings in dismal pay per view numbers, then the Pacquiao-Mayweather fight probably won’t get made next year unless Pacquiao is willing to accept less than a 50-50 deal with Mayweather.

Margarito is known for his ability to throw a lot of punches. However, he was unable to do that in his loss to Mosley because Mosley used the punch and grab technique to shut Margarito down. It worked perfectly for Mosley, as he would charge forward, land a couple of punches and then immediately grab Margarito before he was able to get his own shots off.

Since the referee wasn’t saying anything about the clinching, Mosley was able to dominate the slower Margarito using this style. In Margarito’s last fight against Roberto Garcia, Margarito changed his style by fighting on the outside using his jab and not mixing it up like he used to do.

It looked strange to see Margarito fighting like that. It worked for him in that fight against that kind of an opponent, but Margarito is going to have to go back to his former slugging style of fighting if he wants to have a chance at beating Pacquiao on November 13th.

Pacquiao has beaten Oscar De La Hoya, Ricky Hatton, Miguel Cotto and Joshua Clottey in his last four fights. De La Hoya looked weight drained, Hatton fought a stupid fight by rushing Pacquiao early, Cotto looked like a shell of himself since his loss to Margarito and Clottey just stood and covered up the entire fight against Pacquiao.

Margarito at least should be good for a few interesting rounds before he gets taken out. It’s not the fight that boxing fans want to see. Boxing fans want to see Pacquiao fight Mayweather. However, with Mayweather off the table, fans aren’t excited about seeing Pacquiao face Margarito.

They’d rather see Pacquiao fight Andre Berto, Paul Williams or Sergio Martinez. Those fights will likely never happen, though. Although Martinez has fought most of his career at junior middleweight, he’s not someone that Arum or Freddie Roach will likely want to put Pacquiao in with because of Martinez’s movement, boxing skills and power. With Williams, he’s too tall for Pacquiao and would likely give him problems with his high work rate. In other words, Williams would have a good chance at beating Pacquiao.