The shock defeat of Andre Berto at the hands of Victor Ortiz Sunday further narrowed down the choices of who Manny Pacquiao fights next assuming that he gets past Shane Mosley early next month.
Berto was previously the unbeaten World Boxing Council welterweight champion and was in the conversation mix as possible Pacquiao opponent. His loss to Ortiz virtually eliminated him from the Pacquiao sweepstakes, however.
His conqueror would have made an interesting choice except that promotional issues will likely stand in the way between them aside from the fact that both Ortiz and Pacquiao used to share the same boxing gym ? at Freddie Roach?s Wild Card Gym.
Ortiz is being promoted by Oscar de la Hoya?s Golden Boy Promotion. In case and before anyone forgets, de la Hoya and Top Rank?s Bob Arum are not only not seeing eye to eye, they are also sworn enemies.
With Juan Manuel Marquez apparently deciding to stick it out with de la Hoya, it is safe to assume Manny will not get to fight a marquee fighter this year. Unless Floyd Mayweather Jr suddenly gatecrashes in to the party, of course.
No wonder Uncle Bob is suddenly floating the name of former welterweight Kermit Cintron whom he recently signed to a promotional deal as an intriguing possibility.
Pacquiao however is guaranteed to still earn his millions regardless of whoever he fights in the next two years although its is the bonanza of a Mayweather fight that will guarantee him his retirement pay for good.
A rematch with Miguel Angel Cotto is a possibility but the beat up image of the Puerto Rican whom Pacquiao completely dominated inside twelve rounds before the referee stopped the manslaughter is still fresh to guarantee excitement.
Manny could either fight Timothy Bradley at a catchweight of 144 pounds or fight out of the box and challenge middleweight Sergio Gabriel Martinez at 152 pounds just for the fun of it.
But it is obvious that unless Mayweather shows up down the road, there is nothing left for Manny to conquer except his bank refill.
Manny has put a great distance between him and the next best boxer in his division ? and for that matter in all of boxing ? because of and despite Mayweather?s refusal to fight him.
And with Juan Manuel Lopez also shockingly going down against Orlando Salido, the number of top PPV attractions has also dwindled down.
Over the last five years, nobody not named Pacquiao, Mayweather and de la Hoya hit the 750,000 pay per view buy mark.
De La Hoya of course last fought against Pacquiao resulting into the former?s abrupt retirement.
Mayweather, for all intent and purposes, is just adroitly using his Pacquiao argument as leverage to earn his millions fighting smaller foes while all the while avoiding the Filipino boxing king. Without Manny, Mayweather will fade into oblivion even if he owns an unblemished record. Want proof? Mayweather was roundly booed when he showed up to watch Ortiz upset Berto.
Manny will only have himself to blame. He has improved tremendously over the years that despite his three losses, he is still the man to beat ? all the others considered.
Many are eager to fight him not because they seriously believe they can beat him. They are all merely in for the money.
From the standpoint of boxing as sports, Manny?s list of opponents is getting shorter. From the business side of it, he is not wanting in takers though.
