Cotto’s size and power could make it tough for him to get Pacquiao fight

By Boxing News - 08/20/2012 - Comments

Image: Cotto's size and power could make it tough for him to get Pacquiao fightBy Chris Williams: Former WBO junior middleweight champion Miguel Cotto (37-3, 30 KO’s) would like to get a second shot against Manny Pacquiao to even the score from three years ago when Cotto was knocked out in the 12th round in a catchweight fight for Cotto’s World Boxing Organization title.

Cotto has long since moved up in weight to the 154 pound division where he’s quite comfortable and dangerous at this weight. Bob Arum, Pacquiao’s promoter, is looking for a money fighter to put Pacquiao in with for his next pay per view television date on HBO in November. However, Cotto may be bypassed for that fight simply because it would require Pacquiao to move up in weight to meet Cotto at a minimum of 150 pounds for the fight to have a realistic chance of being made.

Cotto is now well enough financially not to fold under the pressure of squeezing down to 147 to fight Pacquiao at that fight, and that means for the Cotto-Pacquiao II fight to take place, Pacquiao is going to have to be willing to move up to 150 in order for the fight to get made. At 150, Pacquiao is going to be in a much dangerous fight than he was when he fought a weight drained Cotto at 145.

Cotto is a lot stronger now than he was back then, and he’s now matured. Pacquiao isn’t nearly as fast as he was three years ago, and he won’t be able to get out of the way of Cotto’s big shots by skipping around the ring from side to side like he once did. Those shots that didn’t hit Pacquiao three years ago from Cotto will now he hitting the Filipino with full force.

It won’t be pretty if Pacquiao isn’t able to score an early knockout, because if all he can do is throw flurries in the tail end of every round, Pacquiao is going to end up taking a major beating and we could see Freddie Roach have to pull his fighter out of there to protect him from taking needless punishment against Cotto.

For that reason, I see Cotto not being selected by Arum for the November 10th fight date against Pacquiao. It’s going to come down to Pacquiao likely taking the least threat of the three guys that Arum picks out for him to choose from and I believe that’s going to be Tim Bradley who gets the fight.



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