"He wants Cotto," stated Jinkee Pacquiao, wife of 8-division world champion Manny Pacquiao, when asked if a decision was made on the WBO welterweight champion's next opponent. According to his promoter, Bob Arum, Pacquiao has indeed made a choice, a process that took less 30 minutes to accomplish, but he refuses to reveal the identity. "We got everything done in 30 minutes," Arum would tell Abac Cordero of The Philippine Star. "Yes, he has made the choice, but I'm not gonna talk about it."
Pacquiao was choosing from a list of four names - Miguel Cotto, Juan Manuel Marquez, Timothy Bradley, Lamont Peterson - that Arum presented to him earlier this week. According to his wife, after reviewing tapes of possible opponents, he finally decided on Cotto. Although Pacquiao's first preference is a showdown with WBC welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather, Arum insists that the earliest that fight can take place is in late May due to his opinion that they need to build a temporary 45,000-seat arena to maximize profits. Unfortunately, Maywather already has a commitment to fight at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on May 5, so the fight with Pacquiao is unlikely.
While Arum is saying that he hasn't ruled out the possibility of a fight with Mayweather, he's already scheduled Pacquiao's "backup plan", a fight on June 9, which just so happens to be the same weekend as the Puerto Rican Day, which takes place annually in New York City. If it's true that Pacquiao has indeed selected Cotto, it would appear that the timing of the fight would be perfect, although the bout would likely be held in Las Vegas as opposed to Madison Square Garden in New York City, where Cotto has fought in the past on the same weekend.
The bout would be a rematch of their first encounter, which took place in November of 2009. In that fight, Pacquiao dropped Cotto two times, once in the 3rd round and again in the 4th round, en route to an easy 12th round stoppage. Although the fight took place at a catchweight of 145 pounds, Cotto's WBO welterweight title was on the line, so with the win, Pacquiao captured the title, making him a 7-division champion at the time.
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