The bombastic CEO of Top Rank, Bob Arum, is traveling to the Philippines tomorrow to discuss with Manny Pacquiao if he should fight WBO light welterweight champion Timothy Bradley, WBA, WBO and The Ring lightweight royalty Juan Manuel Marquez or powerful Puerto Rican icon Miguel Cotto on November 10 at a venue to be determined.
"I'll be over there for a week, and while I'm there we'll figure out what the plans are for his next fight," said Arum, a corruptible weasel who acknowledged during a 2000 federal trial that he bribed the International Boxing Federation (IBF) to attain a higher ranking for one of his pugilists. "I gotta tell Manny what I can afford for each fight and we need to talk about each fight, but he makes his own decision. I've talked to him once earlier in the summer and he's been thinking about what he wants to do. He's going to fight on Nov. 10, but we'll spend some time talking through everything and getting everything ironed out, and then I talk to the opponents and try to make a deal."
In all likelihood, rather than again scrap the 28-year-old Bradley (29-0-0-1, 12 KOs), presently rated by Ring Magazine as the eighth pound-for-pound pugilist in the world, Pacquiao (54-4-2, 38 KOs) will battle Marquez (54-6-1, 39 KOs) for a fourth time in either Las Vegas or Mexico City.
Jeff Lyons is a boxing fanatic who possesses an encyclopedic knowledge of The Sweet Science.
Lyons raved about Marquez and hailed him as one of the better boxers to ever enter the squared circle.
“Boxing legend, period,” said Lyons, 32, a resident of South Boston. “One of the top-ten Mexican fighters of all time for certain. Marquez would fight a man in a telephone booth.”
Cotto (37-3, 30 KOs), a four-time world champion in three weight divisions, last threw fists on Cinco de Mayo when he lost a unanimous decision to WBC world welterweight champion “Pretty Boy” Floyd Mayweather.
The tough native of Caguas, who fought gamely in the bruising bout and bloodied the usually untouchable Mayweather (43-0, 26 KOs), suffered a savage TKO defeat to Pacquiao in November 2009.
"Cotto brings with him a huge fan base from Puerto Rico and Marquez also has a big fan base with the Hispanics fans," Arum said. "Marquez did 400,000 buys more than Bradley. That fight did a little better than 900,000, so I have to consider that. And Marquez is very anxious for the fight, too. With Bradley, the general sports fan, at least anecdotally, wants them to have a rematch. People I go out to dinner with or people I visit with, they all talk about the rematch with Bradley, not a fourth fight with Marquez -- but they aren't Hispanics. The Hispanic fans are the ones who want the fourth fight with Marquez."
Roger "Pit" Perron is a venerable boxing trainer from Brockton (Mass.) who now works with Mike and Rich Cappiello at their gym, Cappiello Brothers Boxing and Training.
Perron adamantly stated the 31-year-old Cotto is far from being a shopworn pugilist.
“Cotto isn’t done yet. He proved that against that scumbag Margarito and against Floyd,” said Perron, 75, who worked with Marvelous Marvin Hagler. “He (Cotto) is a true fighter in every sense.”
Unfortunately, due to weight differences, the larger Cotto remains an unlikely adversary for “The Fighting Pride of the Philippines.”
"We could do a Cotto rematch, assuming we can come to an understanding on the weight," Arum said. "Cotto is talking about going to 160 to fight.”
Ultimately, expect the 33-year-old Pacquiao to finally overcome the 38-year-old Marquez, who has captured eight world titles in six different weight classes and is currently ranked by Ring Magazine as the sixth preeminent prizefighter today, in a decisive manner.
Subsequently, boxing fans will continue weighting in vain for a clash between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather.
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