By Rick Reeno
The entire boxing industry has Pac-Man fever. It's no surprise that unbeaten WBC welterweight champion Andre Berto is ready and eager to fight Manny Pacquiao, too. Veteran writer Ron Borges recently conducted an interview with Pacquiao's trainer, Freddie Roach. During the interview, Roach informed Borges that Manny wanted to fight the much bigger Antonio Margarito. Pacquiao, according to Roach, believes that he can beat Margarito by outboxing him.
Promoter Lou DiBella, informs BoxingScene.com that Berto, a smaller but quicker welterweight, is willing to risk his crown. And then the challenge goes a step further with the winner fighting Antonio Margarito. In order for all of this to happen, Berto would have to get past a tough mandatory defense against Luis Collazo on January 17, Pacquiao would have to beat Ricky Hatton on May 2 and Margarito would have to beat Shane Mosley on January 24 and then Miguel Cotto in June [provided he beats Jennings for the the vacant WBO title on 2/21].
Hypothetically speaking, we could end up with three of the four major welterweight titles being unified at the end of all this. If we only lived in a perfect world.
DiBella doesn't believe that Pacquiao is big enough to pose a risk to Margarito. But if Pacquiao has the urge to rise back up to welterweight for someone like Margarito - Berto is waiting there too. Adding to the spice of things, DiBella goes a bit further and says Berto would be willing to meet Pacquiao at an agreed upon weight of 145-pounds.
"We are not looking past Luis Collazo. Collazo is a very tough fight, but Andre would sign to fight Pacquiao tomorrow, provided that Manny beats Hatton in May. Berto would even come down to 145. And the winner can fight Margarito," DiBella said.
