Man up Manny! 145 lbs.!
Word is Top Rank promoter Bob Arum and coach Freddie Roach want a major concession before their meal ticket, Manny Pacquiao. gives Miguel Cotto his payday.
They want Cotto to come down from the welterweight limit of 147 lbs down to 143 lbs to meet the naturally lighter Pacquiao. They would make it 140 lbs. if they thought they could get away with it.
Cotto has countered with 145 lbs.
I’m already on record as saying Cotto is prematurely shot anyway after his wars with Margarito and Clottey.
Let me explain again. This is not an insult to Pacquiao and his claim to big victories and his legacy. I’d be the first to vote him in to the International Boxing Hall of Fame.
If Cotto is already shot, why make him starve to the point of passing out a day before he’s supposed to be at his best?
Of all the likely suitors to Pacquiao, Cotto is the easiest victory and he is taking the smallest pay, and is already under contract to Top Rank. What else does anyone want?
I say let Cotto weigh in at 145 lbs. It won’t make any difference! Cotto will go five or six very competitive rounds before he’s cut up or breaks down.
Forcing him to drop an additional two pounds is just cruel and the tables could be turned on Pacquiao, Arum or Roach some day when they don’t have the financial leverage. That is unlikely though.
If Pacquiao wants to say he beat the best welterweight, let him fight the guy at welterweight. To fight Cotto in a weakened state, well he ain’t at his best and it rips off the public.
It sounds like Cotto has already given up two pounds before the negotiation has begun. The recent golf outing with Oscar De La Hoya might be the Cotto way of not giving up any more weight by threatening to jump promotional ship- but this is not Arum’s first rodeo.
What’s the real reason Cotto is being pressured? Greed. The financial and competitive leverage Team Pacquiao has. They have to win at all costs. Why? To do it again. Make more money. They are out of control and running amok like megalomaniacs.
Manny isn’t blind to this. He knows what is going on. Will he speak up? Let a proud boxer like Cotto have some dignity.
Antonio Margarito is still the man for Top Rank, By time he’s reinstated, Pacquiao should have run the table with Cotto and Juan Manual Marquez , maybe even a voluntary defense and virtually starve Floyd Mayweather, Jr. into a Shane Mosley fight and avoid both of them.
So for this reason I say take the high road for your fans and countrymen Manny and fight him at 145 lbs. Man up Manny!
I remember a similar event when middleweight champ Sugar Ray Leonard fought light heavyweight champ Donnie Lalonde in 1988,
This is when the WBC created its version of the super middleweight division and said the light heavy (175 lbs.) and the new super middle (168 lbs.) title would be at stake and Leonard forced Lalonde to come down to 167 lbs. because it put Lalonde at a huge physical disadvantage. Leonard’s 160 lbs title was not at stake.
Meaning Lalonde had to come in a pound below a weight division that didn’t exist.
Of course Leonard was the money man and Lalonde was just the bleach-blonde opponent so Lalonde had to deal with it and other indignities if he wanted the payday.
It turned out to be a great fight with multiple knockdowns with Leonard prevailing. So that’s a good thing.
Cotto won’t be so lucky.
