In recent comments about his upcoming fight against Miguel Cotto, Yuri Foreman has strongly implied that he thinks Manny Pacquiao is scared of facing him.
Apparently Pacquiao and his team were concerned with the height and weight difference that Foreman would pose when looking at him as a possible future opponent. The fight was eventually dismissed and Joshua Clottey was chosen instead.
Foreman claims that Clottey will probably be heavier than him come fight time, and that Oscar De La Hoya is the same height. It seems odd though that Pacquiao would be scared of him when he was happy to fight De La Hoya and of course Clottey.
Most resources have De La Hoya listed as 5,10, and he doesn’t have as big of a reach as Foreman either. Foreman by contrast is rangy and uses his length and reach to keep opponents at bay rather than coming forward. Something the much shorter Pacquiao would no doubt find difficult to negate. All things being equal (If Pacquiao were 5,11 as well) few would give Foreman a chance.
Clottey being the same weight at fight time seems a little off to me as well. Clottey does cut a fair bit of weight to make the welterweight limit, and re-hydrated probably has a few pounds on Pacquiao, but he’s still not as big as most super welterweights.
Foreman doesn’t cut that much weight in most of his fights, but if he were to go up against Pacquiao would surely pack on all the weight he could and be much bigger than Clottey could ever dream of being.
Besides anything else, Pacquiao isn’t another light middleweight that should be fighting Foreman, hes realistically small at welterweight and there’s a limit as to what he can put on in weight and maintain his speed and power before becoming too bulky and musclebound.
If the most Foreman can say is that he isn’t as big as people think, while fighting Manny’s most recent victim, then he doesn’t really have much grounds to say he isn’t surprised Pacquiao isn’t fighting him.
Speaking to BoxingScene, Foreman said: “When the whole Mayweather thing was going on, Freddie Roach said we want to fight Yuri. But then when it comes up, they really don’t want to fight. I’m 5′11 and Oscar De La Hoya is 5′11. The same dimensions. And if they are worried about my weight, Clottey who is going to fight Pacquiao, will probably be much heavier than me when he comes to fight Pacquiao,”
Foreman isn’t one to typically trash talk other fighters or call them out, and this might just be a case of trying to build up a fight against Cotto, who Pacquiao mauled without much difficulty.
If he wins though a fight between himself and Pacquiao might gain some interest and assuming other fights for Manny can’t be made, he and his title might be in Pacquiao’s sights.
Until then though, Foreman needs to get past Miguel Cotto before he makes comments about a 7 weight champion like Pacquiao.
