Cotto on Pacman bout: It's 145 pounds or bust

MANILA, Philippines – If you think Miguel Cotto is dying to fight Manny Pacquiao, at any weight, anytime, anywhere, think again.

The WBO welterweight champion from Puerto Rico is not. Maybe not now when he has a big fight to think of.

“Nothing less than 145 pounds,” Cotto, younger, bigger and stronger than Pacquiao, told Primera Hora yesterday.

Cotto told the Puerto Rican newspaper he’s not willing to fight Pacquiao “below 145 pounds.”

Cotto’s statement, which comes close to his June 13 showdown with the dangerous Josh Clottey in New York, puts a little doubt on Bob Arum’s statement that a Cotto-Pacquiao fight would be easy to stage.

Cotto and Pacquiao are both under Top Rank, and Arum thinks he shouldn’t have a problem getting two of his fighters up at Madison Square Garden for a huge fight later this year.

Weight, sometimes more than money, could either make or break a planned fight.

Pacquiao’s trainer, Freddie Roach, said they might fight either Cotto or Shane Mosley if they’re willing to go down to at least 142 lb, and nothing more.

Mosley said he can’t make 142 lb either, and asked Roach why Pacquiao’s can’t fight him at 147 lb as he did against Oscar dela Hoya last December.

“Mosley is not Dela Hoya in terms of setting a weight handicap,” said Roach in that Mosley would pose a lot of problems at 147 lb even if he’s of the same age as Dela Hoya at 36.

Roach believes that Pacquiao is unbeatable at 140 lb, and dragging the bigger boxers down should be to the advantage of the Pinoy pound-for-pound champion.

“It’s really up to Manny at what weight he’d like to fight Cotto, if at all ... Manny might want to bring it down to 142,” Pacquiao’s Canadian adviser, Mike Koncz, was quoted as saying.

“This fight would mean more to Cotto than to Manny. If a limit of 142 is agreed, let Cotto struggle to make weight, not Manny,” he told The STAR.

Cotto is set to face Clottey for the WBO 147-lb title, and if he gets past this one a fight with Pacquiao, his stablemate at Top Rank, would be next in line.

Others who may be lined up against Pacquiao are the comebacking Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Juan Manuel Marquez, the stubborn Mexican. They square off on July 18 in Las Vegas at 147 lb.

Again, the winner of that fight should be considered next in line for Pacquiao, but that may come early next year – or unless Cotto sticks to his announcement that it’s 145 lb or nothing.

Or he could be playing hard to get.

“Now Cotto is on record that, superfight or no superfight, he won’t go lower than 145, and though some may think this is mere posturing for the eventual negotiation, I tend to think he’ll stick to that number,” wrote sportingnews.com.

Fighting Cotto at 145 lb could turn out to be a nightmare for Pacquiao, and Roach won’t let that happen.