Pacquiao must challenge Mayweather to be the undisputed best at 147

Dallas Boxing Examiner | Matt Stolow

Manny Pacquiao may very well win his seventh world title in seven different weight divisions in less than two weeks. But if he wants to be known as the best welterweight today and not just a title holder, he simply has to challenge Floyd Mayweather, Jr. at 147.

Trainer Freddie Roach recently said they wouldn't go over 154 if that, so a battle at 147 seems realistic if Pacquiao gets past Cotto.

Mayweather's credentials as the No. 1 welterweight are solid. Miguel Cotto's are very good but just short of Mayweather's, and Pacquiao doesn't have enough fights there yet.

All three fighters have met common opponents. DeMarcus Corley, Zab Judah and Ricky Hatton, to name three, have met some combination of Pacquiao, Mayweather and Cotto.

Mayweather has three welterweight defenses against Ricky Hatton, Carlos Baldomir and Zab Judah, along with a non-title against Sharmba Mitchell. He even went up to 150 to fight Oscar De La Hoya for his 154 title.

Mayweather has two WBC Light Welterweight (140) Eliminators against DeMarcus "Chop Chop"Corley and Henry Bruseles. He has one WBC Light Welterweight fight against Arturo Gatti.

Mayweather has four WBC Lightweight (135) defenses. Two are against former Pacquiao sparring partner and world champion Jose Luis Castillo. Mayweather had nine WBC Super Featherweight (130) before that included wins over world champions Genaro Hernandez and Jesus Chavez.

Cotto won a vacant title over someone named Michael Jennings, that no TV network would buy, and a near life or death battle with respected Joshua Clottey in his one title defense during this current second run at the welterweights.

Cotto made four successful welterweight title defenses and claimed a vacant title before losing to Antonio Margarito under suspicious circumstances in his first run at 147.

He had beaten Alfonso Gomez, Shane Mosley, Zab Judah, Oktay Urkal, and the vacant title over Carlos Quintana.

Cotto made six successful title defenses and one successful vacant title win at 140.

Those wins were against: Paulie Malignaggi, Gianluca Branco, Ricardo Torres, Muhammad Abdullaev, DeMarcus Corley, Randall Bailey and Kelson Pinto, respectively.

Pacquiao has an impressive KO-2 over Ricky Hatton for the IBO Light Welterweight Title (he weighed in at 138). Pacquiao (142) also has his gigantic December 2008 8 -round TKO over Oscar De La Hoya (145).

But the question remains: What will Manny Pacquiao do next after this fight with Cotto?
An exciting, competitive fight could bring about an easy to make rematch. A Pacquiao win over Cotto could set up negotiations for a Mayweather fight.

I believe negotiations have and are going on between Pacquiao and Mayweather camps and Arum said basically no they are not and it would be a while because Mayweather is so difficult to deal with, simply to get people off his back.

Originally there were eight weight divisions and only one sanctioning body. For a while after World War II it stayed that way but in early 1950s the lighter weights went to the junior titles and more sanctioning groups, starting with the World Boxing Association came into being.

Today we have 17 weight divisions, six world sanctioning organizations, Interim titles and, Champion in Recess that serve only to dilute the boxing product because they are not accountable to anybody about anything.

Beneath that we have layers of International, national, and regional titles.

The trick is for the sanctioning bodies to protect their interests by tying up its top contenders waiting for their title shot with these interim titles so as not to see them go fight for other titles of other organizations while the current champion considers retirement or easy voluntary defenses.

Source: http://www.examiner.com/x-11372-Dallas-Boxing-Examiner~y2009m11d3-Pacquiao-must-challenge-Mayweather-to-be-the-undisputed-best-at-147