By Manuel Perez: I expect Manny Pacquiao to lose big against Miguel Cotto on November 14th and end up with a lot of pie on his face. But let’s say that Cotto ends up losing, probably because of a cut or something like that, will the little Filipino continue to force his opponents to come in at catch weight if he holds the WBO welterweight title?
And if so, will won’t that even more so diminish the value of boxing as well as the sanctioning bodies? Already, it’s a pathetic joke the way that Pacquiao was suddenly vaulted into the number #1 challenger spot by the WBO after Cotto wasn’t showing any interest in putting his WBO title on the line for his fight with Pacquiao.
At that time, there wasn’t a thing that Pacquiao could do about forcing Cotto to put his title on the line, other than to whine and complain about it to their mutual promoter Bob Arum. This left Arum in a bad situation where he had to placate two stars at once.
However, the WBO came to the rescue and shoved Pacquiao to the number # 1 position in the WBO, jumping over much more established welterweights like Joshua Clottey in the process. As of now, the closest thing that Pacquiao has gotten to fighting a welterweight is his bout against the washed up, weight drained 36-year-old Oscar De La Hoya in December.
The fact that Pacquiao was put into the number #1 spot without any real welterweight experience is such a joke. No way did Pacquiao deserve to be put into that position by the WBO from estimation. Alright, so it’s done. The WBO put Pacquiao in that spot, giving Cotto no choice but to fight Pacquiao with the WBO title on the line or else end up having the title stripped from him and put on the line anyway for the fight.
So my question is will Pacquiao continue to fight future opponents between 141-145, even if he captures the WBO title? That would make a mockery of the welterweight division to have a small fighter pushing his weight around to have limits set in place to give him an extra edge. Can you imagine other fighters doing this every time they fight?
What will people think if Pacquiao does this every time he fights? Man, if the little guy is too small to fight at the weight, he needs to take his wares back down in weight rather than install these artificial limits for his opponents. Pacquiao can do this because right now he’s considered to be a big draw than most of his opponents.
I don’t buy any of that garbage, and see Pacquiao a product of having fought two big named stars – De La Hoya and Ricky Hatton – in back to back fights and ridden on their coattails. The same will go for his fight against Cotto on November 14th. This is so insane. Boxing needs an overlord that can step in and stop this kind of thing from going on.
I’d take this position if I knew there was opening, because boxing needs to be tightened up to prevent this kind of silly stuff from going on. If Pacquiao feels like he needs a handicap to win, then he shouldn’t be in the business. For me, it’s like me entering a class and telling the teacher that I can bring cheat notes with me during the tests to give me an advantage.
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