Arum: Cotto-Mayorga winner in the mix for Pacquiao fight

By Boxing News - 03/12/2011 - Comments

Image: Arum: Cotto-Mayorga winner in the mix for Pacquiao fightBy Chris Williams: At Friday’s weigh-in between WBA junior middleweight champion Miguel Cotto (35-2, 28 KO’s) and 38-year-old Ricardo Mayorga (29-7-1, 23 KO’s), Top Rank promoter Bob Arum, who promotes Cotto, said “The winner of this fight is in contention to fight Manny Pacquiao.” That’s a sickening thought. Mayorga or Cotto facing Pacquiao? Come on, why not put Pacquiao in with someone that actually has a chance to beat him like Saul Alvarez? The Cotto-Mayorga fight will be held at the MGM Grand, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Cotto is coming off of shoulder surgery, and hasn’t fought since last year in June when he defeated an injured Yuri Foreman by a 9th round stoppage.

Before that fight, there were whispers that Cotto was a shot fighter after getting totally beaten up in a one-sided 12th round knockout loss to Pacquiao in November 2009, and getting stopped by Antonio Margarito in a 11th round TKO defeat in July 2008. With only victories over Joshua Clottey, Michael Jennings and the injured Foreman to show for himself in the past three years, it would frankly be sad indeed if Cotto can get a tune-up win over an old Mayorga and get another shot at Pacquiao.

To me that’s a joke. Foreman was injured and had no power, and besides that he was one of Arum’s fighters in his stable. Clottey, another Arum fighter, had Cotto ready to quit but then stopped punching. Mayorga is almost 40, and I don’t see how a win over this guy can get Cotto another shot at Pacquiao. I don’t want to see another mismatch between Cotto and Pacquiao. We already know who’s going to win that fight just as we did when Pacquiao was matched against Clottey, Antonio Margarito and now the 39-year-old Shane Mosley.

Cotto should at least be made to have to prove himself against a top junior middleweight like Alfredo Angulo before he gets another crack at getting beaten up by Pacquiao. To go from Foreman and Mayorga into another title shot against Pacquiao is laughable.



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