By Mark Vester
Only a few days to go before we get our answer on a Floyd Mayweather Jr.-Manny Pacquiao fight. An agreement was sent to Mayweather for his approval. If Mayweather approves, the fight would happen on November 13 in Las Vegas. Mayweather was given a mid-July deadline to approve the terms. If Pacquiao can't get Mayweather for November, Top Rank has two possible opponents who are ready and willing.
WBA junior middleweight champion Miguel Cotto and Antonio Margarito will be the two options for Pacquiao, if the Mayweather fight doesn't happen.
Pacquiao's trainer Freddie Roach sees a Cotto rematch ending in the same way as the first fight. After a few close early rounds, Pacquiao took over the fight to batter Cotto and stop him in the twelfth round of last November's bout.
Roach watched Cotto's title win over Yuri Foreman in June. He wasn't too impressed and saw nothing different about Cotto. The three division champion from Puerto Rico is now trained by Emanuel Steward. Even with Steward, and no catch-weight being involved, Roach says Pacquiao would beat Cotto every day of the week.
“Well, [Cotto] won a title and it would be for Manny’s 8th world title so it gives it some legitimacy. I think if [Cotto] fought one more it would make it even better. It would show he is better at that weight. You know they are talking about a catch weight but I say we fight him at 154. Manny beats him any day of the week. I don’t think Cotto is any better than he was last time. He says he is better at that weight maybe we’ll see,” said Roach to Gabriel Montoya of doghouseboxing.com and co-host of BoxingScene.com's official audio show "Leave It In The Ring."
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