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

[prsi]

on the flip side, if cotto signs the contract for the catchweight then no excuses or complaints.

True, if Cotto accepts than there should be no excuse from him win or lose. And guess what he'll probably accept for the recognition and the money, but he should not because it was Pacman who called him out and not the other way around.

[bulit7]

I don't think Pac belongs in the welterweight division, he should just go back down...But i agree that if he does decide to want to fight a welterweight he should fight them at 147 instead of a catchweight. I personally think these welterweights should be concerned on fighting other welterweights instead of trying to pick on the smaller guy because of what he brings to the table...but what can you do..

[Dave Rado]

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.

Apart from the fact that Cotto has not weighed less than 146 for several years, if what you say is true then it would be massively in Pac's interests for the fight to be at 147. The only possible reason why he would ask Cotto to come in lighter is in the hope that he will be weight drained. If he wants to fight Welterweights, and wants it to be a legacy fight, it has to be at 147. Any less and it will do nothing for his legacy. If he thinks that he can't beat Welterweight unless they are weight drained, then he should clean out his own division, like all great champions do. Otherwise he's no better than Floyd, winning a lineal title and then refusing to fight the best in his own weight class.

[prsi]

The author misses the point. MP does not have to agree with your suggestion for him to be judge by History accordingly. Why take a knife to a gunfight when you're allowed to bring a gun anyway? I don't see the point you bitchin that he should fight at 147. Did you hear him complaining to ODLH when he was the one dictating terms? He has earned his spot, an no amount of prodding from hecklers like you , who obviously just want him to lose, can make him do what he or his team thinks its best for him. you are obviously not the one paying him the $$$ neither will you care what happens to him if he loses. your just one dumb shmuck hoping for him to lose. and why do you keep defining true WWs at 147? last i know that ww is a range, not at the absolute upper limit of 147.

for immortality , like most comments here say, bull****, he has already made his mark in history. an no matter how tall his accomplishments are ( say after beating cotto), am sure you come up with something to still question as to how he compares to the other ATGs, making excuses that he wasn't as great.

give the man some respect.

This is a great post theotherone ,and i agree with every thing you said and i must add that Pacman right now is the face of boxing.

On what i don't agree with Pacman is what i have said previously, if you call Cotto out, fight Cotto how you've known Cotto not how you want him to be. Remember Cotto didn't call for him, he called for Cotto.

[paulsinghnl]

great article, knowing Cotto, he'll go with whatever the company tells him to do. and yeah, unfortunately Pacman can dictate it, just like ODLH with Pacman. just the way it is.. which sucks.

[crold1]

on the flip side, if cotto signs the contract for the catchweight then no excuses or complaints.

Agree to an extent and 145 would probably not be much of a detriment to Cotto but we don't know. A pound can be a lot to shave given age. Cotto would have no excuses but there could end up being unnecessary questions.

The author misses the point. MP does not have to agree with your suggestion for him to be judge by History accordingly. Why take a knife to a gunfight when you're allowed to bring a gun anyway? I don't see the point you bitchin that he should fight at 147. Did you hear him complaining to ODLH when he was the one dictating terms? He has earned his spot, an no amount of prodding from hecklers like you , who obviously just want him to lose, can make him do what he or his team thinks its best for him. you are obviously not the one paying him the $$$ neither will you care what happens to him if he loses. your just one dumb shmuck hoping for him to lose. and why do you keep defining true WWs at 147? last i know that ww is a range, not at the absolute upper limit of 147.

for immortality , like most comments here say, bull****, he has already made his mark in history. an no matter how tall his accomplishments are ( say after beating cotto), am sure you come up with something to still question as to how he compares to the other ATGs, making excuses that he wasn't as great.

give the man some respect.

You're wrong in the sense that how the fights play out will be judged. It's not about my take; it's just the way it is. I agree he's made his mark and have done my best to define it fully where others do not.

However, comparisons to the immortals matter because Pacquiao is making his way into that chatter. Modern fighters have a huge wall to climb. They don't have the consistency of challenges, the activity, or the depth of talent pool around them men like Armstrong and Canzoneri did. The cream of the times stacks up, but it runs 4-5 deep instead of 10-15. It's rare, exceptionally so, for a modern guy to truly earn the right to compete with those names. I would hate to see Pacquiao give outs on the debate, win or lose.

And I'm not hoping for the latter. Quite the contrary, those favoring catchweights in this particular scenario are fan boying because they recognize risk for 'their' guy in taking the sort of challenges other greats did without scale haggles.

[MayweatherJr.]

One thing to remember, team Pacman aint forcing Cotto to fight Pac at a catchweight. As far as I know, they're offering Cotto a fight at 144. Now, it's up to him if he accepts it or not. Giving up 3 pouns won't make you weight drained unless you're in a lower weight class like flyweight. They're asking a catchweight to avoid Cotto of having tremendous weight advantage come fight night cause we all know Cotto would outweight him 12+ pounds after the weight in. Like the other guy said, their just trying to level the playing field. A lot of people here are too quick to criticize Pac but too quick to forget that he, too, gave up 7 pounds to move down to 140 to face Hatton after defeating Oscar. I didn't hear any Pacfan say he'd be weight drained. I'm sure a lot of you will say "but he only fought once at 147". My answer is why make an excuse? So what if he only fought once at 147, nothing can change the fact that he did. If Pac can cut 7 lbs. why can't Cotto cut 3? With that said I want to see them fight at 147 so IF Pac beats Cotto there won't be any excuses. Just trying to say that both the pro catchweight and against it have a point but don't criticize Pac for asking the fight to be even and not a mismatch.

[Iceta]

I wish Pacquiao would fight the winner of Campell-Bradley or Ortiz-Maidana. I know he would be favored to beat them, but I think it looks good on you to plant your feet in one weight division for a while and defend your title against all comers. Shane Mosley needs to answer the challenge of Paul Williams, and Cotto should give Clottey a rematch. This would happen if the world was perfect.

[sidespina]

Of course he is man; Cotto has a shot at a career defining fight, with a big star who can bring a lot of money on the table of course he is licking his chops, just like De La Hoya and Hatton was.

People, in both MMA and Boxing go and up down the weigh divisions all the time; and all Pacquiao wants is a fair playing field. I highly doubt Cotto would be dehydrated at anything above 144 or something. The guy shows up at the weigh in at 145-146.

In other words fighters show up all the time below what the weight divisions limit, what the heck is wrong with making it official. Cotto is a way bigger man, I was just looking at Pacman's fights at 126, he was bean pole, Cotto is just a wider bigger fighter.

So far the only thing that Pacquiao has proven is that he dish out WelterWeight punishment, but since Hatton and De La Hoya barely touched him, we don't know if he can take WelterWeight shots, hence the "catch" weights.

What the heck are Cotto fans so scared of. Does Cotto need advantages to beat Pacquiao or something?

[crold1]

Of course he is man; Cotto has a shot at a career defining fight, with a big star who can bring a lot of money on the table of course he is licking his chops, just like De La Hoya and Hatton was.

People, in both MMA and Boxing go and up down the weigh divisions all the time; and all Pacquiao wants is a fair playing field. I highly doubt Cotto would be dehydrated at anything above 144 or something. The guy shows up at the weigh in at 145-146.

In other words fighters show up all the time below what the weight divisions limit, what the heck is wrong with making it official. Cotto is a way bigger man, I was just looking at Pacman's fights at 126, he was bean pole, Cotto is just a wider bigger fighter.

So far the only thing that Pacquiao has proven is that he dish out WelterWeight punishment, but since Hatton and De La Hoya barely touched him, we don't know if he can take WelterWeight shots, hence the "catch" weights.

What the heck are Cotto fans so scared of. Does Cotto need advantages to beat Pacquiao or something?

Cotto hasn't weighed 145 at welter ever. Repeating it over and over won't make that true. And how is weighing in at no more than the division you're fighting in asking for an advantage? If a pound or two is no big deal, why not let Cotto (or Mosley) weigh in wherever he wants no larger than the division limit. The only advantage in a catchweight would be the hope the extra pound or two weakens the larger man. It's not like Cotto still won't come in the ring as a Jr. Middle.