By Chris Williams: To no great surprise, Bob Arum has selected WBA junior middleweight champion Miguel Cotto from his Top Rank stable to fight WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao on June 9th. Cotto and Pacquiao have reportedly agreed to terms according to RingTV.

There are still some issues that they need to resolve but it’s not likely to keep the fight from going forth on June 9th in one of two Las Vegas venues: The Thomas & Mack Center on the UNLV campus or surprise, the MGM Grand. If you remember, Arum was totally against Pacquiao fighting Floyd Mayweather Jr. at the MGM Grand, as he felt it was too small for this fight and he wanted to maximize profit by having a much bigger outside arena built. But it looks as if the MGM is good enough for Pacquiao-Cotto. What does that tell you?

The Pacquiao-Cotto fight is expected to be announced this Monday.

Cotto beat out the other four candidates – Floyd Mayweather Jr., Timothy Bradley, Juan Manuel Marquez, and Lamont Peterson. Mayweather was the fight that boxing fans wanted to see, but Arum appeared lukewarm to that fight from the very start and in the end two sides never really got to the point where they were talking.

Mayweather is scheduled to fight on May 5th, and that date didn’t work well for Arum and Pacquiao, as they wanted a later date in the larger venue to maximize profit. Pacquiao and Arum now have the larger arena but it’s unclear whether they’ll even be able to fill half of it for the much less appealing Pacquiao-Cotto II fight.

If there was ever a rematch that had no real point in taking place it’s this one between Cotto and Pacquiao. Three years ago Pacquiao trounced Cotto by stopping him in the 12th round in a one-sided fight from start to finish. The 12th round TKO doesn’t show how one-sided the fight was, as Cotto was getting battered every time he would attempt to exchange with Pacquiao.

Finally, Cotto was forced to run to keep from getting knocked out. From the 5th round until the 12th, Cotto was in constant motion just trying not to get hit. Needless to say it was a disappointing fight to watch, and now Arum has set them up again for another fight. Why? Mainly because Cotto brings in a lot of money from his huge fan base, and he’s a much bigger seller than some of the other candidates that Arum was exploring for Pacquiao.

Is that good for boxing fans to see this fight again? No, not unless you’re one of Cotto or Pacquiao’s diehard fans that want to see this fight. It’ll make a lot of money for Arum and Pacquiao, and the bottom line is that’s what it’s all about. That’s why the Pacquiao vs. 40-year-old Shane Mosley mismatch was set up last year. It wasn’t about good entertainment, it was about money to be made and the Pacquiao-Mosley fight brought in big money on PPV from casual fans who recognized Mosley’s name and likely had no clue that he wasn’t the same fighter he once was.