Pacquiao, Cotto sign for Nov. 14 bout, and it becomes year's most important fight

Manny Pacquiao and Miguel Cotto will fight Nov. 14. An announcement from Top Rank Boxing made that megafight official Monday. They’ll be fighting at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas on HBO pay-per-view at a weight limit of 144 pounds.

Cotto would have been a huge favorite over Pacquiao a year ago, when Cotto was the top welterweight in the world and Pacquiao was barely a lightweight, but Pacquiao’s sensational victories over Oscar De La Hoya and Ricky Hatton since then probably have changed that. So has Cotto’s loss last July 26 to Antonio Margarito, even though that upset has been discredited in the meantime.

Cotto (34-1, 27 knockouts) has won two fights since the Margarito bout, the more important being his decision win over Joshua Clottey on June 13. Throughout that bout it was possible to envision Pacquiao being too quick for Cotto, just as he has been too quick for just about everyone.

Cotto, who at 5-foot-7 is less than an inch taller than Pacquiao, is certainly a more formidable opponent for Manny than Hatton was, and probably will be much harder than De La Hoya for Pacquiao to handle. Cotto’s victims include Shane Mosley.

Don’t forget that Pacquiao (49-3-2, 37 knockouts) lost the first of his three bouts against Erik Morales without losing face. A reasonably close loss to Cotto, which might create a great long-term rivalry, wouldn’t be the end of the world either, and it is very possible. That said, Pacquiao should be favored.

I’ve been sparing my readers the endless speculative hype about this matchup, but there probably will be reason to weigh in frequently during the four-month build-up to the bout. Even with Bay Area mainstays Nonito Donaire, Robert Guerrero and Andre Ward battling for titles in the meantime, Pacquiao-Cotto has become the most important bout on our boxing horizon.

Source: examiner.com