By Mark Vester
The Manny Pacquiao sweepstakes continue to play out. ABS-CBN News spoke to WBA junior middleweight champion Miguel Cotto about a possible rematch with Pacquiao, who knocked out the Puerto Rican star last November to capture the WBO welterweight title. Cotto has since moved up to 154-pounds to capture the WBA title.
Pacquiao’s adviser, Michael Koncz, is in Puerto Rico for Saturday's fight between Juan Manuel Lopez and Bernabe Concepcion. Along with Top Rank as the promoters, Pacquiao and Koncz co-manage Concepcion under their company MP Promotions. Cotto has been around some of the media functions to show his support for Juanma and the other Puerto Rican fighters in action on Saturday's card.
ABS-CBN News was present as Cotto had a conversation with Koncz about a Pacquiao rematch for November 13. Cotto is one of the frontrunners to face Pacquiao if a Floyd Mayweather Jr. fight doesn't happen. Mayweather has until mid-July to approve the terms for Pacquiao fight. Koncz told them Cotto and Margarito were the two candidates if Mayweather doesn't agree, but he think a rematch with Cotto is the better Plan B choice.
“If the contract is not signed in a week to 10 days we will move on to either Miguel [Cotto] or [Antonio] Margarito. But the better we think is Manny and Miguel,” Koncz said.
Cotto said he is ready to fight Pacquiao again and has no fear of the rematch. The Puerto Rican star is now trained by Emanuel Steward.
“Yes I’m always willing to fight the big names… I’m not afraid of Pacquiao otherwise I wouldn’t have fought him the first time,” Cotto said.
Send News Tips and Comments To Mark Vester @ boxingvester@gmail.com
