Cotto Does Not Agree With The WBO's Weight Stance

According to WBO welterweight champion Miguel Cotto, and his father Miguel Cotto Sr, WBO president Francisco "Paco" Valcarcel has become too involved in the title controversy with the November 14 bout with Manny Pacquiao. Notwithstanding a recent published report by one careless hack who erroneously attributed the comments to Pacquiao in an effort to instigate a legal situation, it was "Paco" Valcarcel who said the Pacquiao-Cotto bout was a welterweight contest because it was taking place at 145-pounds.

"If the fight is at 147-pounds, that is the limit. If he weights more than that, then you are at junior middleweight. But with one or two pounds less, you are still inside the limit," Paco told El Nuevo Dia. "We (the WBO) have the responsibility... that if a fight is going to be inside the welterweight limit, then it has to be for the title."

The Cotto clan does agree with Paco’s position. They view Paco as a good businessman who is trying to grab a sanctioning fee of $150,000. Since Paco was not involved in the negotiations, Cotto says the WBO president should not involve himself in the dispute.

"If he requires me to, I will gladly give him a letter of resignation. I do not have any problems with that. But in the rough draft of the contracts, the fight was not for the title. That was what we agreed on,” said Cotto to El Nuevo Dia. "For my previous fight. I weighed 146 pounds, but the contract stipulated 147 pounds and the fight was for the WBO title. For this fight the [contract] said 145 pounds and the title was not on the line.”

Top Rank president Bob Arum has already gone on the record and said that he would personally cover the sanctioning fee for both parties out of his own pocket. Arum has told several reporters that Pacquiao-Cotto will have the WBO title at stake.

Cotto Taking No Chances, Starts Training For Pacquiao

WBO welterweight champion Miguel Cotto is taking no chances. With several months to go before his November 14 bout with Manny Pacquiao, the Puerto Rican champion has already begun training for the fight. Cotto returned to the gym on Monday and did five rounds on the heavy bag, 40 minutes of running and several stretching exercises. He wants to hit the gym two to three times per week until August 24, when he plans to start training full time for the fight with Manny. He doesn't want stamina to become an issue in the late rounds.

"I've done other things, but I've yet to return to the gym. The idea is to go two to three times a week until Phil Landman (his conditioning coach) arrives in Puerto Rico on August 22 and then I'll begin to train full-time on the 24th," Cotto told Primera Hora.

Cotto's trainer, Joe Santiago, told the paper that his fighter's training began early because the opponent is considered the best in the sport.

"We want to go to work slowly and get the most out of the following three months to achieve a high level of preparation," said Santiago. "We want to avoid the history of previous fights, like the one with Antonio Margarito. We do not want to arrive feeling tired on the day of the fight and therefore we will moderate the workload."

Mayweather Sr: Cotto Can Take Pacquiao's Head Off

I’ll admit, I’m one of the few scribes to pick Miguel Cotto to beat Manny Pacquiao on November 14. Most of my colleagues believe Pacquiao’s speed and overall movement will overwhelm Cotto. I spoke in detail with trainer Floyd Mayweather Sr. and he agrees with my belief that Cotto has enough power to end the fight with a single shot.

“I think Cotto has a very a good shot to win. He’s got a good puncher’s chance. If Cotto hits him to the head or the body, he is going to take his ass out. Cotto did not look good against Clottey and I think Clottey beat him. That was a bad cut [suffered by Cotto during the Clottey fight]. I think a cut like that would affect anybody. A cut like that can keep you out of the game,” Mayweather Sr. told BoxingScene.com

If Mayweather was training Cotto, he would advise him to keep a tight defense and protect the left eye as a precautionary measure to prevent the cut, suffered during the Clottey fight, from re-opening.

“A cut like that can open up again at any time and turn the fight around,” Mayweather Sr. said.

He gets the impression that Freddie Roach [Pacquiao’s trainer] is overlooking the high level of danger that Cotto represents. Mayweather doesn’t see Pacquiao being able to withstand a flush Cotto power shot, whether it be to the head or body.

“He whooped on Oscar De La Hoya who was dehydrated and had no liquids in him. Ricky Hatton was suspect before the fight. Cotto is a puncher. If Cotto is in good shape and he hits him to the body or the head, he can take him out, my mark my words. [Roach] made a mistake by thinking Cotto ain’t that good. If Cotto hits him right, he take his head off, remember I told you that. Cotto is going to be ready for this fight, believe me. If Cotto hits him to the head or the body, he is gone - Rick, remember I told you,” Mayweather Sr. said.

Mayweather Sr. had trained Hatton for the May fight with Pacquiao. He told BoxingScene that miscommunication during training camp was a big factor in Pacquiao’s ability to blow Hatton out in two rounds. Mayweather would not advise Hatton to fight again. During the training camp for Pacquiao, Mayweather saw rookies giving Hatton a lot of trouble during sparring sessions.

“He wouldn’t do what I told him. He kept listening to Lee Beard [assistant trainer]. He was suspect before the fight anyway. We had lesser fighters, four round pros, shaking him up in the gym. The way my son knocked him out, he was bound to get knocked out again and again. That’s how it happens sometimes. My son knocked him out bad and then Pacquiao knocked him all the way out. And mark my words, if he fights again, and I don’t care who it’s against, he will get knocked out again,” Mayweather said.

Miguel Cotto-Manny Pacquiao: It's Not All Good

So I'm a contrarian. Sue me.

While nearly all my colleagues have celebrated that Miguel Cotto and Manny Pacquiao will get together in a ring on Nov. 14 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, I'm a little bit less than giddy.

Don't get me wrong, the fact Bob Arum has created a scenario in which the reigning WBO welterweight champion and the incumbent IBO junior welterweight title-holder will meet ensures boxing’s status as a SportsCenter lead item come fight week.

The best at 147 pounds is fighting the best at 140.

That without question is a good thing.

Arum scheduled a September publicity tour for the HBO PPV extravaganza, which will be billed as "Fire Power." A Sept. 10 event at Yankee Stadium is planned, as are stops in Puerto Rico, San Francisco and Beverly Hills.

Neither an agreed-to weight nor a championship belt on the line have been confirmed – thanks in part to recent reports that Cotto is hesitant to risk his crown at less than 147 pounds – though it’s widely assumed the two will compete for Cotto's title at a contracted weight of 145.

Assuming those assumptions are correct and the fight indeed comes off with a championship on the line at something less than 147, my initial reaction of frustration will stand firm.

The fight's a good idea.

Just not nearly as good as it should have been.

But before the e-mails begin, I’m not arguing Pacquiao is the biggest thing in the sport today.

And I know writers, promoters, analysts and fans have been climbing over each other to be most profound in describing him as a throwback, and comparing his recent run of dominance to the one established as benchmark by Henry Armstrong in the 30s and 40s.

Problem is, no matter how many times it's insisted by the cognoscenti, it's still wrong.

Only a fool would deny Manny's status as a great fighter.

I certainly will not.

Even if nothing had preceded it at lower weights, his climb to elite status at 130 pounds with a win over Juan Manuel Marquez – albeit a close and controversial one – was evidence enough to prove pound-for-pound prowess to me.

He’s great. No question.

But before too many more mentions are made of Armstrong, take a closer look.

First, remember that Pac's post-Marquez climb to the championship rung at 135 pounds was not made against an incumbent three-belt champion, but with a lesser-regarded and more favorable stylistic match in David Diaz – then the WBC claimant – as punching bag of choice.

True, his surprisingly brutal shellacking of Oscar De La Hoya six months later was impressive and rightfully earned Manny kudos.

I chose De La Hoya by KO going in and never would have dreamed an upset in any form would have approached the level of domination Pacquiao displayed.

Still, the Golden Boy's seemingly imprudent weight loss casts at least something of a shadow, and a clearer and usually unmentioned reality is that Oscar’s seven-year absence from the welterweight division hardly makes any conqueror – even a streaking Pacquiao – an automatic Armstrong-like claimant to the throne.

If De La Hoya had lost to Steve Forbes at 147, for example, no one would have claimed the former lighter-weight champion was a new terror in the division.

But because Manny is the “it” guy in the sport, anything he touches – even a guy whose last victim at 147 was Arturo Gatti in 2001, when Pacquiao was months short of a championship at super bantamweight – suddenly turns to gold.

Meanwhile, in 2009, no plausible denial applies to Pacquiao's recent punch-out of Ricky Hatton at 140, where he clearly defeated the most-visible foe a division had to offer and established himself as its new top man.

But even with that dramatic one-punch highlight, a subsequent rise of just a few pounds to meet Cotto at a stand-in weight between two divisions opens a similar can of doubting worms as the match with a shrunken Oscar.

History shows "Homicide Hank" left no such lingering reservations.

And to me, it’s all pretty simple.

If Manny wants to weigh just 143 pounds while attempting to defeat a naturally larger Puerto Rican-born foe, so be it.

And if Cotto freely chooses to slim down to less than the welterweight max while combating an obviously talented and dynamic Filipino, that's fine, too.

But changing the rules to conveniently orchestrate a big title event is simply wrong, and takes away any shreds of legitimacy existent when comparing Pacquiao's laudable achievements to Armstrong's legendary ones.

And while I understand his status as reigning big-fight cash cow gives Manny the leverage needed to set the business terms, it'd be nice to hear purists go the same lengths to raise red flags over cheap replicas of "welterweight title" bouts as they did while breathlessly likening him to multi-division trailblazers of decades past.

As for the fight itself, it's a bad mix for Cotto no matter where it occurs on the scale.

I like Pacquiao in 10.

* * * * * * * * * *

Coming out of this weekend, Nate Campbell’s got issues.

No question, the injuries he sustained in round three against Timothy Bradley Saturday night were the result of a butt – not a punch.

And under normal circumstances, a referee would have stopped the bout, correctly determined the cause of the cut and declared the bout a no-contest because it hadn’t gone four rounds.

However, one major factor may be playing against the “Galaxxy Warrior” here.

Regardless of David Mendoza’s mistaken assertion that blood on Campbell’s left eye came from a punch, chances are that his error would have eventually been corrected by officials that night or via subsequent protest by Campbell’s team with the state commission.

Problem is, Mendoza didn’t stop the fight.

Campbell did.

Let’s be clear, I’m not one of the chest-thumping tough guys criticizing Campbell for “quitting.”

His peril was the result of serious injury.

And given the fact that his vision was compromised and he had a world-class opponent on the other side of the ring ready to inflict more damage, his decision makes healthy sense both for the present and the future.

Notwithstanding any basement-residing message-board thugs in the audience.

Bottom line, had Mendoza halted the fight because of the cut and awarded Bradley a TKO, Nate would have had ample evidence on his side in the form of video replay showing the clash of heads.

A rematch, then, would have made perfect sense.

But by retiring in the corner and taking the fight’s conclusion out of Mendoza’s hands, Campbell may have blocked off his own avenue toward getting justice – and another big-money title try with Bradley or anyone else – after the fact.

His own version of an inadvertent whistle, if you will.

* * * * * * * * * *

This week’s title-fight schedule:

No title fights scheduled.

Last week’s picks: 1-2
Overall picks record: 23-8 (74.2 percent)

Pacquiao and Cotto To Wear Puncher's Gloves on 11/14

You can already guess what both fighters plan to do on November 14 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. When Miguel Cotto and Manny Pacquiao enter the ring, they will both wear 8-ounce gloves to get the most power out of their punches. Both fighters are going to look for the knockout.

"Both are punchers and they'll be wearing 8-ounce gloves in the fight," said Pacquiao's lawyer Franklin Gacal to the Manila Bulletin.

There is a rule in Nevada where all fighters above 135-pounds have to wear 10-ounce gloves to the ring. But there is a stipulation that permits the use of 8-ounce gloves - if both fighters agree to their use. This is a rule put together by the Nevada State Athletic Commission. In most other parts of the United States, fighters weighing up to 147-pounds can wear 8-ounce gloves. The Nevada commission amended their rule for last year's fight between Cotto and Antonio Margarito, when both camps jointly protested to use 8-ounce gloves.