By Michael Collins: Miguel Cotto (37-2, 30 KO’s) is said to be in agreement with terms for a rematch with Manny Pacquiao (54-3-2, 38 KO’s) for a fight that is expected to take place on June 9th in a venue still to be determined. RingTV is reporting that Cotto, 31, has agreed to the basic terms of the Pacquiao fight and the contract could be finalized this Monday. That’s also possibly when the fight will be officially announced to the boxing public.
Cotto it appears beat out the other candidates that Arum picked out for Pacquiao – Timothy Bradley, Lamont Peterson and Juan Manuel Marquez. Floyd Mayweather Jr’s name was also in the hunt but it doesn’t look like Arum was ever really serious about that fight judging from constantly evolving excuses that kept popping up for why the fight with Mayweather couldn’t happen. In the end, it looks as if Arum chose one of his Top Rank fighters in Cotto and that’s not too surprising to some boxing fans.
It will be an in house fight where both Cotto and Pacquiao are essentially Top Rank fighters. Cotto was predicted long ago as Pacquiao’s opponent by a lot of people, as Cotto’s contract with Top Rank recently expired last month and he’s on a fight to fight basis with them. The theory is that Arum would want to keep Cotto happy by giving him the Pacquiao fight immediately to keep Cotto from straying to rival promoters Golden Boy.
The thing is that with Cotto on a fight to fight basis with Pacquiao there’s a fear that boxing fans may be forced to see a possible third and fourth fights between them if Arum decides he needs to continue to keep Cotto happy. Given how one-sided their previous fight was in 2009, it’s going to be really off-putting to see a second fight between them and a third would be just plain awful if the second fight is anything like the first.
So how does Arum sell the Pacquiao-Cotto II rematch to the public? It’s going to be difficult to excite knowledgeable boxing fans into wanting to pay $55 to see this fight on pay per view because of how bad Cotto looked in getting stopped by Pacquiao in the 12th round in 2009. Cotto was overmatched in that fight and looked like he didn’t belong in the ring. Arum hasn’t done much in having Cotto try to redeem himself since them, as in Cotto’s last three bouts he’s beaten two of Arum’s Top Rank fighters – Yuri Foreman and Antonio Margarito, as well as 38-year-old Ricardo Mayorga. Foreman fought with a bad leg that collapsed out from under him in the 7th. He limped until the fight was stopped in the 9th. Margarito came into the Cotto rematch following three eye surgeries on his right eye. Margarito’s previously injured eye quickly closed up and the fight was stopped after the 9th round. As you can see, Arum has matched Cotto ever so carefully since the Pacquiao loss and hasn’t tested him against the best fighters in the junior middleweight division like James Kirkland, Austin Trout, Saul Alvarez, Sergiy Dzinziruk, Alfredo Angulo, Erislandy Lara, Paul Williams or Vanes Martirosyan.
Another issue for the Pacquiao-Cotto fight is what weight will the fight take place at? Cotto fights at 154lbs and it would be very difficult for him to get back down to 147 without being weight drained. Pacquiao has already said he won’t be fighting above 147 anymore, meaning that if Cotto wants the fight he’s going to have to get all the way down to 147 to make it happen. In the large scheme of things this hardly matters because Cotto will likely be in way over his head whether the fight takes place at 154 or 147. But this is one more huge advantage that Pacquiao will have over Cotto if the fight does take place at 147. The last time Pacquiao fought Cotto in 2009, Cotto was asked to fight at a 145lb catchweight to accommodate the slightly smaller Pacquiao. Cotto gave Pacquiao that advantage, but it doesn’t look as if Pacquiao is going to give Cotto a similar catchweight.
All in all this fight stacks up to be another terrible mismatch and it’s sad that it’s going to be pushed on the boxing public. I see this fight as not worthy of $55 on PPV given the one-sided nature of the last fight. I think the fight should be either free on regular HBO or something like $1.99 because it brings nothing new to the table for boxing fans and there’s absolutely no suspense in the fight. The only thing you can really look forward to is picking which round Pacquiao will knock Cotto out. That’s about it as far as I can tell.