Miguel Cotto-Manny Pacquiao: It’s Not All Good

So I'm a contrarian. Sue me.

While nearly all my colleagues have celebrated that Miguel Cotto and Manny Pacquiao will get together in a ring on Nov. 14 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, I'm a little bit less than giddy.

Don't get me wrong, the fact Bob Arum has created a scenario in which the reigning WBO welterweight champion and the incumbent IBO junior welterweight title-holder will meet ensures boxing’s status as a SportsCenter lead item come fight week.

The best at 147 pounds is fighting the best at 140.

That without question is a good thing.

Arum scheduled a September publicity tour for the HBO PPV extravaganza, which will be billed as "Fire Power." A Sept. 10 event at Yankee Stadium is planned, as are stops in Puerto Rico, San Francisco and Beverly Hills.

Neither an agreed-to weight nor a championship belt on the line have been confirmed – thanks in part to recent reports that Cotto is hesitant to risk his crown at less than 147 pounds – though it’s widely assumed the two will compete for Cotto's title at a contracted weight of 145.

Assuming those assumptions are correct and the fight indeed comes off with a championship on the line at something less than 147, my initial reaction of frustration will stand firm.

The fight's a good idea.

Just not nearly as good as it should have been.

But before the e-mails begin, I’m not arguing Pacquiao is the biggest thing in the sport today.

And I know writers, promoters, analysts and fans have been climbing over each other to be most profound in describing him as a throwback, and comparing his recent run of dominance to the one established as benchmark by Henry Armstrong in the 30s and 40s.

Problem is, no matter how many times it's insisted by the cognoscenti, it's still wrong.

Only a fool would deny Manny's status as a great fighter.

I certainly will not.

Even if nothing had preceded it at lower weights, his climb to elite status at 130 pounds with a win over Juan Manuel Marquez – albeit a close and controversial one – was evidence enough to prove pound-for-pound prowess to me.

He’s great. No question.

But before too many more mentions are made of Armstrong, take a closer look.

First, remember that Pac's post-Marquez climb to the championship rung at 135 pounds was not made against an incumbent three-belt champion, but with a lesser-regarded and more favorable stylistic match in David Diaz – then the WBC claimant – as punching bag of choice.

True, his surprisingly brutal shellacking of Oscar De La Hoya six months later was impressive and rightfully earned Manny kudos.

I chose De La Hoya by KO going in and never would have dreamed an upset in any form would have approached the level of domination Pacquiao displayed.

Still, the Golden Boy's seemingly imprudent weight loss casts at least something of a shadow, and a clearer and usually unmentioned reality is that Oscar’s seven-year absence from the welterweight division hardly makes any conqueror – even a streaking Pacquiao – an automatic Armstrong-like claimant to the throne.

If De La Hoya had lost to Steve Forbes at 147, for example, no one would have claimed the former lighter-weight champion was a new terror in the division.

But because Manny is the “it” guy in the sport, anything he touches – even a guy whose last victim at 147 was Arturo Gatti in 2001, when Pacquiao was months short of a championship at super bantamweight – suddenly turns to gold.

Meanwhile, in 2009, no plausible denial applies to Pacquiao's recent punch-out of Ricky Hatton at 140, where he clearly defeated the most-visible foe a division had to offer and established himself as its new top man.

But even with that dramatic one-punch highlight, a subsequent rise of just a few pounds to meet Cotto at a stand-in weight between two divisions opens a similar can of doubting worms as the match with a shrunken Oscar.

History shows "Homicide Hank" left no such lingering reservations.

And to me, it’s all pretty simple.

If Manny wants to weigh just 143 pounds while attempting to defeat a naturally larger Puerto Rican-born foe, so be it.

And if Cotto freely chooses to slim down to less than the welterweight max while combating an obviously talented and dynamic Filipino, that's fine, too.

But changing the rules to conveniently orchestrate a big title event is simply wrong, and takes away any shreds of legitimacy existent when comparing Pacquiao's laudable achievements to Armstrong's legendary ones.

And while I understand his status as reigning big-fight cash cow gives Manny the leverage needed to set the business terms, it'd be nice to hear purists go the same lengths to raise red flags over cheap replicas of "welterweight title" bouts as they did while breathlessly likening him to multi-division trailblazers of decades past.

As for the fight itself, it's a bad mix for Cotto no matter where it occurs on the scale.

I like Pacquiao in 10.

* * * * * * * * * *

Coming out of this weekend, Nate Campbell’s got issues.

No question, the injuries he sustained in round three against Timothy Bradley Saturday night were the result of a butt – not a punch.

And under normal circumstances, a referee would have stopped the bout, correctly determined the cause of the cut and declared the bout a no-contest because it hadn’t gone four rounds.

However, one major factor may be playing against the “Galaxxy Warrior” here.

Regardless of David Mendoza’s mistaken assertion that blood on Campbell’s left eye came from a punch, chances are that his error would have eventually been corrected by officials that night or via subsequent protest by Campbell’s team with the state commission.

Problem is, Mendoza didn’t stop the fight.

Campbell did.

Let’s be clear, I’m not one of the chest-thumping tough guys criticizing Campbell for “quitting.”

His peril was the result of serious injury.

And given the fact that his vision was compromised and he had a world-class opponent on the other side of the ring ready to inflict more damage, his decision makes healthy sense both for the present and the future.

Notwithstanding any basement-residing message-board thugs in the audience.

Bottom line, had Mendoza halted the fight because of the cut and awarded Bradley a TKO, Nate would have had ample evidence on his side in the form of video replay showing the clash of heads.

A rematch, then, would have made perfect sense.

But by retiring in the corner and taking the fight’s conclusion out of Mendoza’s hands, Campbell may have blocked off his own avenue toward getting justice – and another big-money title try with Bradley or anyone else – after the fact.

His own version of an inadvertent whistle, if you will.

Source: http://www.boxingscene.com/index.php?m=show&id=21407