Roach: Arum will choose Cotto or Bradley for Pacquiao; Mayweather has to wait until November

By Boxing News - 01/16/2012 - Comments

Image: Roach: Arum will choose Cotto or Bradley for Pacquiao; Mayweather has to wait until NovemberBy Chris Williams: Trainer Freddie Roach sees Top Rank CEO Bob Arum opting to skip Floyd Mayweather Jr. as the next opponent for WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao and instead look to put him in with one of his Top Rank fighters Miguel Cotto or Timothy Bradley next in a move likely done to maximize profits at the same time keeping his Top Rank fighters happy.

Roach told RingTV “I think that Bob Arum’s choices, to me, are Cotto or Bradley. I don’t think Mayweather is going to happen until November. I think that’s going to be the best date for that fight.”

I wonder if Arum and Roach has spoken to Mayweather about whether November is a good date for him to be fighting Pacquiao? It’s pretty presumptuous on Roach’s and Arum’s part to assume that just because they’re not interested in fighting Mayweather in November that he’ll necessarily just be waiting there like he’s some kind of needy person waiting for a handout.

Playing games like that is pretty stupid because they come across like they’re calling the shots. What they should be doing is trying to get the fight while Mayweather is interested in because he may not be there later in this year. This isn’t like going to Safeway and picking up a bag of groceries and it’s sad that neither Arum nor Roach has figured that out after blowing it big time the last time they tried to make a fight with Mayweather.

Roach says he prefers to see someone new fight Pacquiao rather than having a retread like Cotto back in with him. Roach said to RingTV “I think that we need some new blood in there, and Bradley poses a little bit of a problem. So I would rather go with Bradley than Miguel Cotto.”

I agree with Roach on that. At least Bradley is someone new for Pacquiao. We already saw what Cotto could do against him three years ago when Cotto was dominated and stopped in the 12th round. Cotto tried to go toe-to-toe with Pacquiao early on but after getting knocked to the canvas twice in the early rounds, Cotto ran for the next seven rounds in a pure survival mode.

In the 12th, Cotto now hopelessly behind in the fight, attempted to go toe-to-toe once again with Pacquiao but was immediately obliterated. Cotto would have likely been stopped in the 5th or 6th rounds had he chosen to continue slugging with Pacquiao, but he took the safe route and ran. The rematch won’t be any different than the first fight. If Cotto slugs, he’ll get destroyed immediately, and if he runs, he’ll give away the entire fight like he did last time. Either way, Cotto will get trounced.

I don’t want to see Pacquiao beating up on this guy again, not when it’s likely to go between $55 and $60 on pay per view. I wouldn’t pay a dime to see Pacquiao whip Cotto again because he dominated him to such an extent last time they fought that it showed clearly who the better fighter was. It’s like having Joe Frazier fight George Foreman again after being crushed in two rounds in the first fight. Frazier ran I the rematch and was still destroyed by Foreman when he finally stopped running and tried to fight with him in the 5th round in June 1976.



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