It's Official, Pacquiao to Face Cotto

In what had become basically a mere formality, it was announced by Top Rank on Monday afternoon that Manny Pacquiao will be facing Miguel Cotto on November 14th at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, at a catch-weight of 145-pounds.

" This is one of the most exciting fights I've done, ever," said Bob Arum, who came back from a three week vacation that saw him travel to England, Israel and then Italy." Because I think this is going to be such an entertaining, action-filled fight with the way these guys fight."

Arum worked on this fight while overseas." Everyday, pretty much," he told Maxboxing." In the beginning it was every day with the Cotto people and then once I got that straightened out and it was every day with the Pacquiao people. But it wasn't acrimonious or anything. It was normal. It's a lot of money, so this wasn't something like somebody coming in and buying a pair of shoes."

There were differing reports as to how the negotiations were coming along in the Philippines the last few weeks, which didn't surprise the veteran promoter.

" Because you gotta understand," he explained," I've been to the Philippines, I know the players and I know the people. And nobody will ever say,' No comment.' So anytime a writer- and there are many, many writers- asks somebody a question, even if they don't know the answer, they'll make up an answer."

And unlike other promotions, there is no mystery as to this fights weight limit.

" Once Freddie( Roach) signed off on 145, that was it as far as I was concerned. Some people around Manny, they'll negotiate anything just to negotiate. But Manny was always OK with it at 145," said Arum.

The main event speaks for itself, but the last two mega-fights involving 'the Pac Man' had horrid undercards. Perhaps the worst that didn't feature Butterbean and Mia St. John, but when asked what type of supporting card we can expect on November 14th, Arum boldly stated," Spectacular, spectacular. I'm going out on a limb. So I'm going to say everybody is going to be licking their chops on this undercard. It's going to be that good."

NEXT?

So where does this leave Shane Mosley? Perhaps another press release? But Arum says that Mosley isn't completely out of the picture, here.

" I don't know what Shane is going to do but I'm a great fan of Shane and like I've said to other people, I would love for the winner of this fight, whoever it is, to fight Shane Mosley, next. I think Shane is one of the best fighters around and one of the nicest guys and I only have good things to say about him. I'm going to do whatever I can to have the winner of this fight, fight Shane, next."

A cynic- and of course, I'm not one of them- would say that it's about time a promoter did something for Mosley.

But would Mosley be above Floyd Mayweather in this pecking order?

" Way above," said Arum, without hesitation." Because again, I look at talent and I look at guys who are really fighting and I look at guys who are just talking. And I would much prefer to do a promotion with a Shane Mosley than a Floyd Mayweather."

SHOW MUST GO ON

Even without Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. this latest version of Latin Fury from Nuevo Vallarta, Mexico will proceed, with Urbano Antillon and Giovanni Segura anchoring the pay-per-view telecast.

Arum explained," It didn't make us happy without Chavez but we feel that we had the whole infrastructure in place. We have some good fights on the card. Those kids have been training for weeks, if not months, and I wasn't just going to pull the plug on them."

ASSOCIATION

Perhaps it's a sign of the apocalypse but over 30 promoters met on Monday at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York and held a summit. Yes, it's true, boxing promoters actually spent time together and didn't come out of it strangling each other.

" It was very good, we formed an assocation, every big promoter was there, or at least represented, and every promoter signed on for the promoters association," said one promoter, who added," It was really, really positive."

Some of the issues and concerns addressed by the promoters?

" An example, the Muhammad Ali Act, where no promoters ever got a chance to really speak about it. The other example is the UFC not being regulated on an equal footing with boxing. There are boxers being their own promoter"

Another major promoter said," It was a laundry list of issues, but really it was a realization we have problems we all share, for example: not having young fans and not breaking into that demographic where MMA is so strong in it. And also areas where we put our head together and try to save each other and do things in a more efficient manner. And also the entertainment value of the boxing shows up and down. The fact you do a main event that is top-notch but the rest of the show sucks. It effects the whole industry and it effects all of us. We have to take certain stands together."

Promoters, working together? You don't say.

" One thing that came out of it was the realization that if we're going to make anything better, occassionaly we're going to have to work together and we better have a trade association so that there's certain things we should all be able to agree on for the betterment of the business. So I thought it was very positive."

Source: http://www.maxboxing.com/Kim/Kim072109.asp