Pacquiao’s options down to Marquez and Bradley after Cotto chooses to fight Trout

Pacquiao's options down to Marquez and Bradley after Cotto chooses to fight TroutBy Marcus Richardson: Manny Pacquiao’s options are now greatly limited after Miguel Cotto announced that he’ll be fighting WBA World light middleweight champion Austin Trout on December 1st at Madison Square Garden, in New York. Pacquiao and his promoter Bob Arum now much choose from Tim Bradley (29-0, 12 KO’s) and Juan Manuel Marquez (54-6-1, 39 KO’s) for Pacquiao’s upcoming fight in December. It’s not even a choice, is it? Arum wants to maximize his fighter Pacquiao’s payday and it seems pretty clear that the only option they have if they want to do that is to fight 39-year-old Marquez next.

Who knows how many more fights Pacquiao has in him, so it kind of makes sense for Arum to be looking to squeeze every last cent out of the remaining fights of his Filipino star’s career because the Pacquiao train seems to be slowing down now that he’s showing signs of aging.

Marquez would be smart to jump on the Cotto news and demand a bigger slice of the revenue for a Pacquiao fight, because there’s really not many options for Pacquiao now. To be sure, Pacquiao can take the Bradley rematch, make less money for himself and Arum, and possibly get beaten again if Bradley uses movement and a more consistent attack. With Pacquiao limited to fighting hard in the last 20 seconds of every round, Bradley would have a good chance of beating him again.

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Miguel Cotto to fight Austin Trout on December 1st at Madison Square Garden

Miguel Cotto to fight Austin Trout on December 1st at Madison Square GardenBy Rob Smith: In a shocking move, Miguel Cotto (37-3, 30 KO’s) is saying that he’ll be fighting WBA World light middleweight champion Austin Trout (25-0, 14 KO’s) on December 1st at Madison Square Garden in New York. This is kind of a strange move by Cotto, because he could have gotten a much bigger and better paying fight against Manny Pacquiao rather than this. It’s not that Trout isn’t a good fighter, it’s just that he doesn’t have a large fan base at this time.

Speaking on his twitter account earlier today, Cotto said “I officially announce that my fight on December 1st at Madison Square Garden will be with undefeated WBA Super Welterweight Austin Trout.”

Who’d have thought that Cotto would choose Trout. You’d think that Cotto would have been better off waiting on the Saul Alvarez vs. Josesito Lopez results from September 15th and then looking to take on the winner of that fight. A fight between Cotto and Alvarez would be a huge in New York, Texas, Las Vegas or California. It would definitely be a much bigger fight than Cotto-Trout. Is Cotto looking for the safer fight by choosing Trout? You have to wonder, because he could have so much more if he chose Pacquiao or Alvarez or even waiting on a possible rematch with Floyd Mayweather Jr.

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Arum not sure if Cotto wants Pacquiao fight

Arum not sure if Cotto wants Pacquiao fightBy Marcus Richardson: Top Rank promoter Bob Arum says he’s not sure if former WBA junior middleweight champion Miguel Cotto (37-3, 30 KO’s) is interested in fighting his fighter Manny Pacquiao fight now, according to examiner.com. Arum thinks Cotto may go in another direction by taking an easy fight in December rather than taking what could be another tough fight against Pacquiao.

Arum obviously is interested in matching Pacquiao up against Cotto due to the high pay per view numbers that would result from that match-up. The previous Cotto-Pacquiao fight in 2009 drew 1.2 million buys, which is a lot more than Pacquiao’s last fight against Tim Bradley last June. That fight drew only 700,000 PPV buys. However, Arum wants Cotto to face Pacquiao at a catcweight of 150 pounds instead of the full weight for the division. Cotto might be eager to fight Pacquiao in another catchweight fight because their previous fight was also a catchweight fight at 145 lbs and Cotto took a beating.

At this point Cotto is popular enough to where he can’t be easily pressured into things like catchweights, rehydration limits, and glove sizes like he would have been in the past. If there is going to be a Cotto-Pacquiao fight, it’s likely going to be without a catchweight unless Arum can convince Cotto with a high money offer to get him to take the fight at that weight. It will have to be an awfully high offer and I can’t see Arum coming up with enough money to make the fight happen. That’s the bind that Arum and Pacquiao are in.

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Ricky Hatton needs Khan, Mayweather or Cotto for comeback fight

Ricky Hatton needs Khan, Mayweather or Cotto for comeback fightBy Michael Collins: The rumors persist about former two division world champion Ricky Hatton (45-2, 32 KO’s) staging a comeback in the next couple of months. Hatton looks in incredible shape having burned off a thick layer of flab that covered his once muscular physique and it’s hard to imagine that he’s just taking off the weight just for the sake of living a healthy life. It’s unclear why Hatton would come back at this time, but perhaps he wants to prove to himself that he can put in a better effort than he did in losing to Manny Pacquiao in his last fight in 2009.

Hatton, now 33, probably needs to go for the biggest fight possible if he does decide to make a comeback. It’s too risky for him to take on a guy like Paulie Malignaggi, who won’t bring in the big cash because he lacks the huge star appeal needed to really rake in the cash. Hatton can’t afford to take a lesser fighter because at this point he could lose to almost anybody he fights because of the time he’s been out of the ring. What Hatton needs is someone like Miguel Cotto, Amir Khan or Floyd Mayweather Jr.

A fight against Mayweather would be the ideal situation for Hatton, because it would bring in the most money possible and Mayweather let Hatton hang around for the full 12 rounds instead of trying to drill him into the canvas early.

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TMT Approached Miguel Cotto, He Declined Their Offer

By Vitali Shaposhnikov: TMT Promotions have gained a ton of respect due to their aggressive marketing and signing of great new as well as seasoned talent. 50 Cent along with Floyd Mayweather Jr. are making a statement in the sport of boxing, and are now a direct competition to the bog boy in the promotional game, such as Golden Boy Promotions and top Rank.

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Arum Says Pac-Bradley Rematch Unlikely, Says It Will Be Cotto Or Marquez On Nov. 10th – And Then A Mayweather Showdown Next April?

By James Slater: According to Top Rank boss and promoter of superstar Manny Pacquiao, Tim Bradley is out of the running as far as Manny’s November 10th opponent goes. As quoted by The Manila Times, Arum said there is simply not enough fan interest in a Pacquiao-Bradley II, despite, or maybe because of, the controversial nature of the June 9th fight that Bradley somehow won via decision.

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All Time Historical Survey Series Recap – The Original 8 Weight Classes & P4P

All Time Historical Survey Series Recap – The Original 8 Weight Classes & P4P

by Geoffrey Ciani – Over the course of a sixteen month period beginning in June 2009, I conducted a series of surveys that all began with a very simple question: Who are the ten best heavyweights of all time? While contemplating my own list of top heavyweight pugilists, I decided gathering the input of others might help display a more accurate portrayal of what a ‘true’ top 10 list should look like. Now of course this is not an exact science by any means. In fact, quite the opposite, it is an extremely subjective topic that is often skewed by personal bias, differences of opinion, individual tastes and preferences, and most importantly the absence of a universally agreed upon criteria with which to judge past fighters. Even with these inherent obstacles playing their natural role, however, we can still establish some degree of consensus.

The guidelines were simple. I had every person who voluntarily participated in each survey provide me with a chronological list of who they considered to be the ten best (heavyweights, middleweights, etc) in boxing history. Ties were not permitted, just a straight-forward list from one to ten. I then used a weighted-points system to assign values to fighters based on where they appeared on each individual’s list. First place votes received 25 points. Second place votes were worth 15 points, third place votes were 12, and fourth and fifth place votes were worth 10 and 8 points respectively. After that, the point differential was constant, with sixth place votes getting 5 points, seventh place votes getting 4, eighth getting 3, ninth place 2, and tenth place 1.

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