By Michael Collins: You know the old say “Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.” I think this quote fits perfectly with a potential second fight between WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao and Miguel Cotto, which could be taking place on June 9th if my guess turns out to be true.
Bob Arum, the promoter for Cotto and Pacquiao, is supposed to be making some kind of announcement this week about Pacquiao’s next fight, which he says will be on June 9th, and the thoughts are that Arum will handpick Cotto as the guy to be standing across from Pacquiao in the ring on that night.
For boxing fans that will have to pay something in the neighborhood of $55, it might not make them very happy because Pacquiao already knocked Cotto out three years ago in a one-sided fight that ended with Pacquiao flurrying on a red-faced Cotto until the referee halted it in the 12th. Putting them back in the ring against each other seems like a pointless endeavor because Cotto proved on that night that he was not in the same class as Pacquiao.
Close to three years has gone by since the last time the two fighters fought, but Cotto hasn’t accomplished anything that would suggest a rematch would be any different. Arum is partly to blame for that because he’s matched Cotto with weak opposition since the Pacquiao loss and not put him in with some of the best guys in the division. Instead, Cotto has faced an old Ricardo Mayorga, an injured Yuri Foreman with no power and Antonio Margarito coming off of three eye surgeries, a year long layoff and a terrible beating in his previous fight against Pacquiao.
Will fans want to pay their hard-earned money to see Pacquiao whip Cotto again for a second time or will they see this fight as merely a move by Pacquiao’s promoter to try and milk the boxing public by putting together a mismatch that involves two of his Top Rank fighters in what would be another in house fight.
I personally would be willing to pay like $1.50, but I couldn’t past that. There are too many other interesting things to watch in the boxing world that don’t involve mismatches and/or paying big money to see what amounts to be a rerun. I’m not into reruns, especially when it’s a fight that is still fresh in my memory.