Pacquiao’s Choice Should Be a Real "Welterweight" Fight

[Dave Rado]

Manny Pacquiao is not a Welterweight. End of thread.

If he doesn't think he can beat Welterweights, he should fight the top fighters at his own weight, clear out his division, and prove himself worthy of The Ring championship that he's just won. End of thread.

[Dave Rado]

That's true. He's not a Welterweight. But there's fighters at 140 that he can defend his title against. There's Victor Ortiz, Nate Campell, Devon Alexander, and Mike Alvarado. 140 is a deep division and Pacquaio has got a big talent pool to chose from there. Pacquiao should give something back to the fans and fight on regular HBO and not PPV. I understand he only wants megafights because he only has so much time left in his career, but great fighters make title defenses, and this is something that Pacquiao seems allergic to.

Great post.

Defending his lineal title against the best in his division is exactly what Floyd is always criticised for not doing, and the same standards should be applied to Pac.

[fcastro1]

i think people are putting to much emphasis on this weight drain thing because of the delahoya fight. the truth is oscar was the one that messed up his training in reaching the weight too early. 3 pounds is realy nothing if you do it the right way.

[lopez36]

why shouldn't they come down a little?? because they don't have too...cotto is a welterweight,if manny cant go up,then stay at 140...khan is there,ortiz,bradley,,guys who can give him a good fight and he will get a lot of credit for beating these guys too...check out manny's opponents,,once beaten,no defense hatton,weight drained,old oscar,manny wants everybody to go down,worst champ ever in diaz(who i thought morales beat him) i mean,come on,a shot morales gave him hell,,,to me he was worst champ..he has trouble beating marqeuz and manny weighed like 145 in that bout,thats what marquez weighs when he's not fighting now,he had advantage there and still couldn't win clearly....i think manny just carefully chooses his opponents and wants them to fight at his terms,,like i said ,if he's not a welter,then fight at your own weight and don't make these guys fight on your terms and come in weak

[Dave Rado]

i think people are putting to much emphasis on this weight drain thing because of the delahoya fight. the truth is oscar was the one that messed up his training in reaching the weight too early. 3 pounds is realy nothing if you do it the right way.

If it's nothing then there's no reason for Pac to ask for it, given that it's massively in Pac's interests from a legacy point of view for the fight to occur at 147. The only possible reason for him to ask for it is in the hope that it will change the outcome of the fight.

[Doc Holliday]

A great article that was long overdue.

[Pullcounter]

why shouldn't they come down a little?? because they don't have too...cotto is a welterweight,if manny cant go up,then stay at 140...khan is there,ortiz,bradley,,guys who can give him a good fight and he will get a lot of credit for beating these guys too...check out manny's opponents,,once beaten,no defense hatton,weight drained,old oscar,manny wants everybody to go down,worst champ ever in diaz(who i thought morales beat him) i mean,come on,a shot morales gave him hell,,,to me he was worst champ..he has trouble beating marqeuz and manny weighed like 145 in that bout,thats what marquez weighs when he's not fighting now,he had advantage there and still couldn't win clearly....i think manny just carefully chooses his opponents and wants them to fight at his terms,,like i said ,if he's not a welter,then fight at your own weight and don't make these guys fight on your terms and come in weak

no one is forcing cotto to sign the contract for a catchweight. if he signs the dotted line, he must feel confident of victory at that catchweight, so there should be no excuses or complaints.

[Deja_Vous]

Im not a fan of catchweight buts this is an exception to the rule. We're all in agreement that pac is not a ww. his max weigh in is 142. considering the weight he's moved up in his career i think its fine to give him a couple pounds. If this fight is at 144 145 considering cotto weighed 146 on saturday is that really going to change the outcome of the fight? I'm sorry but a 28 year old fighter does not let 2 pounds change the outcome of the fight. Leveling the playing field in this instance is fair. A lot of us on here prior to oscar and hatton thought pac would get killed by cotto. 2 pounds arent what's changed our view, it's what we've seen in the ring.

Well cool.

Fanny should just fight the guys at 140 and make the same money..since he's such a huge draw.

[Deja_Vous]

why shouldn't they come down a little?? because they don't have too...cotto is a welterweight,if manny cant go up,then stay at 140...khan is there,ortiz,bradley,,guys who can give him a good fight and he will get a lot of credit for beating these guys too...check out manny's opponents,,once beaten,no defense hatton,weight drained,old oscar,manny wants everybody to go down,worst champ ever in diaz(who i thought morales beat him) i mean,come on,a shot morales gave him hell,,,to me he was worst champ..he has trouble beating marqeuz and manny weighed like 145 in that bout,thats what marquez weighs when he's not fighting now,he had advantage there and still couldn't win clearly....i think manny just carefully chooses his opponents and wants them to fight at his terms,,like i said ,if he's not a welter,then fight at your own weight and don't make these guys fight on your terms and come in weak

[sidespina]

The only reason to for Manny to fight at 147; is to go for history and go for the belt, other than that it is a severe disadvantage to him to fight a guy like Mosley who can knock out Junior Middle Weights and Miguel Cotto who is a strong WelterWeight.

If they were to fight in a catch weight though; then I don't see the big deal. Cotto had problems making 140; he's not having problems making 147, in fact he shows up 145, 146, he could just make it official and show up at 145. Paul Williams is jumping divisions, and is still talking about going back to 147, is Cotto a lesser athlete were he can't go down a couple of measly pounds?

I think Pachaters are just drooling to see Pacman get stopped by a bigger opponent, because they know that's the only kind of fighter that can.