Grateful for Pacquiao-Cotto Fight

I honestly believe that Shane Mosley and Manny Pacquiao would have been a more explosive fight than a bout featuring Pacquiao and Miguel Cotto. Shane’s the bigger man and a much more legitimate contender in the pool of available fighters when Pacquiao was still looking for his next opponent.

Shane’s credibility is intact (forget the steroids issue. It was ages ago.), since he is the super champion of the welterweight division and he just came from a destructive win over Antonio Margarito, the guy who beat Cotto.


That said, it can be argued that the beating Cotto took from Margarito is in question, hinging on the discovery that Margarito’s hand wraps were sprinkled with Plaster of Paris right before Margarito engaged Mosley. That matter leaves to be debated.

Still, I find myself excited over the prospect of Pacquiao and Cotto dishing and slugging it out in the squared circle. Pacquiao who started his career at flyweight (106 lbs) will now fight a true welterweight in Cotto and with a championship belt at stake.

But what really makes this fight exciting as it is not the circumstances that evolve around the matchup. Pacquiao is gunning for his seventh title in his seventh division. Cotto is making a case that he is not damaged goods as many people perceive he is after the brutal TKO Margarito handed him.

But rather, the excitement comes from the fact that these guys take on the best there is.

Pacquiao fought the best of the lower weights, including the Mexican triumvirate of Morales, Barrera, and Marquez, on his way to the top. He scored victories over the legendary Oscar Dela Hoya, who many thought before the fight would win easily; and Ricky Hatton, who was once considered the top dog of the junior welterweight bloc.

For his part, Cotto also fought the best in the divisions he’s in. He fought and defeated Mosley in a difficult battle, a prime Zab Judah, who was once one of the fastest hands in boxing, and former junior welterweight champion Ricardo Torres, who decked him twice before Cotto knocked him out.

What we have here is a legitimate contest where everyone can make a decent argument as to who can win and why he should win. We got ourselves two of the elite fighters today that will march into the ring and lay it all out there and hopefully, give us a fight of epic proportions that will reverberate for the years to come.

And for all that, we fight fans should be grateful.