By Chris Robinson
As the wheels continue to turn in the life of Manny Pacquiao, it has become clear that a rematch with WBA junior middleweight champion Miguel Cotto may now be out of reach.
Pacquiao defeated Cotto via 12th round TKO in November of 2009 to capture the WBO welterweight crown that he now holds in a fight held at a catch-weight of 145 pounds in Las Vegas. A little over two years later and Pacquiao apparently again asked for Cotto to come down in weight, this time to the welterweight limit of 147 pounds, but Cotto, whose junior middleweight reign typically sees him come in right under 154 pounds, was not taking the bait.
Pacquiao has caught some flack in recent years for having a catch-weight guarantee attached to a handful of his contests, as there are those who feel it has made a few of his wins slightly tainted.
But when asked for his take on the recent developments in relation to a Pacquiao-Cotto rematch, former champion Victor Ortiz feels that Manny is the one who should be calling the shots.
“Manny can do what he wants,” Ortiz said recently from his training camp in Ventura, California as he prepares for a February rematch of his own with Andre Berto. “He’s the champ. He’s the ruler of boxing and his division for a reason. As far as that goes, I leave that in their court. I can’t really speak on his behalf, but all the best.”
Ortiz has always shown respect to Pacquiao and knows him very well, having engaged in some heated sparring sessions with him a few years back at the Wild Card Boxing Club in Los Angeles.
Ortiz was then asked if he had been impressed at all by Cotto, who has gone 3-0 with 3 knockouts since his defeat at the hands of Pacquiao with stoppage victories over Yuri Foreman, Ricardo Mayorga, and Antonio Margarito.
“Impressed in the fact that I’d like to fight him,” Ortiz continued. “That’d be nice. He’s a great fighter, they’re all great fighters.”
The statement led me to ask Ortiz his opinion of Mexican superstar Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez, who is being looked at as a possible foe to undefeated Floyd Mayweather Jr. this coming May. Mayweather handed Ortiz his third defeat as a professional this past September and he doesn’t get too excited when muttering Alvarez’s name as a possible foe for his former rival.
“I can’t say I’m impressed by Saul Alvarez. He’s a good guy, a good guy inside but his boxing doesn’t impress me,” Ortiz said bluntly.
Ortiz suffered his share of criticism for the way his bout with Mayweather went down and the feedback, along with the backlash from his June 2009 loss to Marcos Maidana, has seemed to make him leery towards the press.
Ortiz was asked for how he feels towards both the media and fans and couldn’t offer up a definitive answer as he simply tried his best to take everything in stride.
“I don’t know. Fans are fans. I just keep doing what I do, and what my team does. We just keep getting ready for the next one.”
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