By Allen Fox: Floyd Mayweather Sr. says his son Floyd Mayweather Jr. told him that if he can’t get Manny Pacquiao to agree to fight him on May 5th, then he’s interested in facing WBA junior middleweight champion Miguel Cotto next rather than 21-year-old Saul Alvarez.
Mayweather Sr. told eastsideboxing.com’s On the Ropes Boxing Radio Program “I talked to my son the other day, I talked to him on Friday and he was telling me that he had Cotto in mind. I think little Floyd can whop Cotto too, but I think Cotto would be a more credited type of fighter than someone like [Saul] Alvarez.”
Cotto would be a great choice for Mayweather Jr. to fight given that Cotto is the No.3 pay per view money maker in boxing right now behind Mayweather Jr. and Pacquiao. Mayweather wants the Pacquiao fight but if by chance the fight can’t be negotiated due to one reason or another, Cotto will be an excellent substitute opponent in place of Pacquiao.
The only question is whether Bob Arum, Cotto’s promoter, will block that move by choosing Cotto to fight Pacquiao next rather than Timothy Bradley, Juan Manuel Marquez or Lamont Peterson. Arum can’t keep Cotto from taking the Mayweather fight now that Cotto is a free agent and is no longer under contract with Top Rank as of last December. They’re on a fight by fight basis now.
Cotto recently avenged his loss to Antonio Margarito from four years ago by a 9th round stoppage. Cotto has already expressed interest in fighting Mayweather, so it shouldn’t be a difficult fight to put together as long as Cotto is free to take the fight. If, however, he does get selected by Arum, then Mayweather will have no choice but to take Alvarez as his next opponent. Ideally, Pacquiao needs to take the fight but it’s still kind of iffy right now given all the things that have to be in place before the fight can happen.
Arum wants things to be perfect before he’ll agree to let his No.1 fighter Pacquiao take the fight with Mayweather. Number #1 on Arum’s list is that the fight makes as much money as possible. He’s obviously thinking of his fighter but he might be thinking about himself as well. If Pacquiao gets beaten decisively, it could mean smaller money for Arum in the future if boxing fans aren’t as eager to see the beaten Pacquiao face guys from Arum’s Top Rank stable over and over again.
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