According to Bob Arum the possible next opponent of Manny Pacquiao could be revealed next Tuesday during the interview of Boxingscene.com. Manny Pacquiao wants to return on the ring on June 9 2012 and the venue will be the MGM grand in Las Vegas. Arum did not give any more details on whom Pacquiao will face next but it appears to be Timothy Bradley now the front runner.
“We won’t announce anything until after the Super Bowl. I don’t want to take anything away from the Chavez fight [on Saturday]. We want to wait until after the Chavez fight, and after the Super Bowl [to make the announcement]… probably Tuesday. Arum added.
“Does it look closer to being Bradley? It looks closer to being Bradley, obviously, by the process of elimination,” Arum said in an interview.
Arum originally presented Pacquiao with a list of four possible opponents and Timothy Bradley was among the four boxers shortlisted for a potential bout against Pacquiao, along with Juan Manuel Marquez, Lamont Peterson and Miguel Cotto. During the visit of Arum in the Philippines, he and Pacquiao chooses Miguel Cotto for his next opponent.
Puerto Rican boxing champion Miguel Cotto reiterated that he has no intention of accepting a rematch with Filipino boxing icon Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao at a weight class below 150-pounds. In an interview, Cotto made it clear that he “will not sacrifice my body again” to fight the Filipino boxer.
“I will not fight below 150-pounds,” Cotto told Boxing Scene. “If Pacquiao has no trouble going up to 150 to fight (Antonio) Margarito, why is there a set requirement for me to go down again? Does he fear me?“
“He had no problems dealing with Antonio Margarito at 150. He hasn’t had problems with anyone regarding weight,” Cotto said of Pacquiao.
“With Joshua Clottey, they fought at 147. I drove down to 145. The rematch, I’m going to do it at my weight. I will not sacrifice my body again for the benefit of another boxer,” he added.
“It won’t happen at 147-pounds.”
Cotto lost to Pacquiao when they first fought in 2009, in a bout that was held at a 145-pound catchweight. Since then, Pacquiao has fought at above 147-pounds only once, defeating Margarito in 2010 in a bout held at a 150-pound catchweight. Cotto has since moved up in weight to the junior middleweight division, where he now holds the World Boxing Association championship. He said if Pacquiao wants a rematch, it will be done at a weight that he is comfortable in.
A Pacquiao vs Cotto rematch may be held on June 9, but both camps are still at odds over the weight division. Cotto said that if Pacquiao refuses to agree to a 150-pound catchweight, he will instead fight undefeated American boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr.
“Mayweather Jr. said he has no problems going up to 154-pounds to fight me,” he said.
A potential mega-fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr. is out of the question as well, after the undefeated American boxer refused to accept a 50-50 split. Marquez and Peterson are both out of the picture, and Cotto has refused to fight Pacquiao at the welterweight division. This leaves Bradley as the most likely opponent for the Filipino boxer.
