By Michael Collins: Floyd Mayweather Jr. had to settle for fighting WBA junior middleweight champion Miguel Cotto for his next fight on May 5th because he couldn’t get his #1 choice Manny Pacquiao to agree to fight him. Mayweather said this on his twitter page on Wednesday: “I’m fighting Miguel Cotto on May 5th because Miss Pac Man is ducking me.”
It almost looks as if Mayweather is looking for approval from fans or a free pass for the Pacquiao fight not happening. I just don’t think it’s going to entirely work because both fighters are guilty in this game.
It didn’t help that Mayweather asked for more than a 50-50 purse split and wasted a lot of time trying to make Pacquiao look bad by sending twitter updates in a kind of gotcha manner. However, Pacquiao hasn’t been looking very assertive with his promoter Bob Arum by not putting his foot down and making the fight happen.
When Arum was talking about wanting the fight to take place in a temporary 40,000 seat outdoor arena, Pacquiao followed in lock step behind Arum, even though by agreeing with him it meant that Mayweather would never be able to fight him because the arena wasn’t expected to be completed until the tail end of May, just days before Mayweather is to start serving his 90 day jail term.
Mayweather made the right choice in facing Cotto rather than Saul Alvarez
Floyd Mayweather Jr. selected Miguel Cotto to fight on Wednesday but he had the option of choosing WBC junior middleweight champion Saul Alvarez, who with large Mexican fan base, would have been the ideal opponent for Mayweather to fight on May 5th, Cinco de Mayo holiday.
Instead of facing Mayweather on May 5th, Alvarez will be fighting on the undercard. Golden Boy Promotions president Oscar de La Hoya said that they’re looking at three potential opponents to match Alvarez against.
Cotto is an excellent pick for Mayweather due to Cotto’s large Puerto Rican fan base and due to his success in pay per view fights. He’s one of the few fighters that can bring big numbers even without stars like Manny Pacquiao and Mayweather to help.