By Michael Collins: Top Rank promoter Bob Arum has revealed that he’s ready to make an announcement this week about who will be Manny Pacquiao’s next opponent for June 9th. As of now, there are still five candidates – Floyd Mayweather Jr., Lamont Peterson, Timothy Bradley, Miguel Cotto, and Juan Manuel Marquez – but only one of them seems to be under any real consideration and that’s Cotto.
Arum said to Philstar.com “We are going to make the announcement this week regarding Manny Pacquiao’s June 9th fight. We have to formalize everything before me make the announcement.”
Mayweather doesn’t appear to be the one that Arum has in mind judging by the date that Arum has picked out. Mayweather can’t fight beyond May 5th, and Arum mentioning June 9th is the equivalent of him saying that Mayweather won’t be the guy that gets the fight.
Marquez also doesn’t appear to be in the running because of a number of factors, such as him not wanting to fight in Las Vegas again, him asking for too much money and probably the most important part, him being too dangerous for Pacquiao.
Cotto won’t take the fight unless Arum and Pacquiao agree to the weight being 150lbs instead of the 147 that Pacquiao is asking for. If Cotto agree to come in at 147, he’ll effectively be signing for another beating from Pacquiao because he’ll too weak to fight.
Cotto always was weight drained the last time he fought Pacquiao when he agreed to fight him at a 145lb catchweight that left him weak and vulnerable to Pacquiao’s speed and power. But it looks as if Arum is going to be able to convince Cotto to take the fight given his impending announcement. It certainly won’t be a Mayweather-Pacquiao fight that Arum will be announcing.