By Chris Williams: Miguel Cotto says he was offered only $6.5 million to fight Manny Pacquiao in a rematch plus a share of the pay per view revenue, not the $13 million that Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum has been talking about offering Cotto. Additionally, Cotto said that he would have had to fight Pacquiao at a catchweight handicap of 150 lbs because Pacquiao didn’t want to fight at 154, which is where Cotto is fighting now.

Cotto told Dan Rafael of ESPN “The only offer Top Rank ever made us was the same money in 2009…We found it kind of funny. That was the reason we decided not to face Pacquiao. That, and they also wanted me to go down to 150 lbs and give him [Pacquiao] the same advantage that they gave Pacquiao in 2009, a catchweight.”

Cotto said that Arum never spoke to him about the $13 million for the Pacquiao rematch. Instead, Cotto says it was the exact same deal that he got for the Pacquiao fight from 2009, and he didn’t like that and didn’t understand why Arum would do this.

I don’t blame Cotto for turning down the rematch with Pacquiao. Why would Arum offer the same deal to him as he received in 2009? That doesn’t make sense, especially with the huge paydays Pacquiao is receiving. It would look funny Cotto getting only $6.5 million while Pacquiao is making over $20 million. And then to top it off there would be the old catchweight handicap thrown in. So in other words, Cotto would have to drain down to 150 and possibly come in weight drained for the Pacquiao fight.

We already know it’s much easier for a fighter to move up in weight than it is for them to come down weight. So I can’t blame Cotto one bit for turning down the Pacquiao rematch. I wish Arum and Pacquiao a lot of luck because they’re going to be kind of limited in terms who they can fight after Pacquiao’s fight with Juan Manuel Marquez on December 8th. I guess they can fight Tim Bradley again or even Marquez, but it gets old. How many times will boxing fans pay to see these fights?