Arum was planning on matching Pacquiao vs. Valero

Mayweather vs Mosley Fight Online Free This May 1st.

Top Rank promoter 78-year-old Bob Arum was planning on putting unbeaten Edwin Valero (27-0, 27 KO’s) against his number #1 fighter Manny Pacquiao for a big money fight within a couple of bouts. All of that will never happen now that Valero has committed suicide while in jail in Venezuela. We’ll never know what Valero could have done with his boxing career. In an article at Reuters, Arum said “I was grooming him [Valero] as a future opponent for Manny Pacquiao. That would have been a sensational fight.”

Arum was right about that. Valero was very special and could have been a great one had he lived. Valero was in jail for killing his wife on Sunday. And then today, Monday, Valero was found hanging in his jail cell. The jailers had taken his shoelaces and shirt as a suicide precaution, but had failed to take his trousers, which is what Valero used to hang himself on the bars of the cell. This is all pretty tragic and it’s something that hopefully people can learn from.

Valero reportedly had an alcohol problem before his death, and this would have had to have been treated for him to have taken on a top fighter like Pacquiao. But it’s interesting to speculate what would have happened if Valero and Pacquiao had met in the ring. Both Pacquiao and Valero would have been the same height at 5’6”, but unless Pacquiao came down in weight from 147, Valero would have been at a great disadvantage against Pacquiao.

At the time of his death, Valero hadn’t fought over 135. In fact, Valero only moved up in weight from super feather last year in April. To ask Valero to move up to welterweight for a fight against Pacquiao, which I could see happening given the pull that Pacquiao has, would have been asking too much from Valero. However, if the fight could have taken place at 140, Valero would have had an excellent chance at possibly beating Pacquiao. Both of these fighters would have gone toe-to-toe, and there’s no telling whether Pacquiao or Valero would have emerged as the winner. Valero had never been beaten and with his crushing power and unorthodox fighting style, he would have been a big problem for Pacquiao to deal with.

Arum wasn’t aware of how bad Valero’s problem was with alcohol at the time of Edwin’s death, saying “I had heard stories about drug and alcohol abuse, but I never realized the magnitude of it. The few times I met with hi, he seemed perfectly normal.” 

Watch Mayweather vs Mosley Fight on May 1st

Source: boxingnews24.com By Dave Lahr

Roach: Pacquiao Would Drop the Lawsuit to fight Floyd Mayweather

In a recent interview with ESNEWS, Freddie Roach gave some revealing thoughts regarding where Manny Pacquiao wants to go next. He mentions Manny having been interested in fighting Antonio Margarito for some time. “He wants to fight [Antonio] Margarito,” said Roach. “Before Shane [Mosley] beat him, he told me that he wanted him next, after Oscar. So he saw something that maybe Shane saw.”

But the man Pacquiao really wants, according to Roach, is Floyd Mayweather Jr. So much so that Roach (after some visible toiling with whether or not to say it out loud) admitted Manny would drop his litigation in order to make it happen. “He would drop the lawsuit just to fight that guy. Just win that lawsuit in the ring. That’s where I would like to win it, too.”

Evidence of Manny’s desire to fight Floyd seems to be a result of Mayweather having gotten inside Pacquiao’s head. “This is the first time I’ve seen [Manny] make fun of somebody in the gym. The guy’s under his skin a little bit. So he really wants it.”

But there’s still the matter of Floyd’s drug testing demands. To that, Roach had an answer as well. “We’re not going to negotiate with him on drug testing. That’s not going to happen, because he doesn’t run the sport. Again, that issue is gone. Any commission rule we’ll go with. Mayweather’s going to have to deal with that.” So it seems the line has been drawn in the sand. Will this prevent the fight from happening, considering the amount of exposure that will have been given to Mosley and Mayweather undergoing the USADA testing (it will most certainly play an important role in the HBO series 24/7)?

Roach doesn’t think so. He thinks Floyd needs Manny. “If he wants to make the money that he thinks he deserves, he has to fight Pacquiao. I can’t see him going anywhere else.” The cold, hard truth is that this is a two way street. Manny and Floyd can go on making their $10M paydays, give or take, but if they want to see the big dollars, they both are well aware that they need one another.

As to whether or not Roach thinks Mayweather is ducking Pacquiao: “I don’t think he’s ducking us. I think he needed more time to fight Pacquiao. I think he’ll come to the table after Mosley. If he beats Mosley that will be a good win, because he’s a very tough opponent. He’ll feel he’s ready for Pacquiao.” It’s an interesting angle not that heavily talked about. Floyd, in his post-fight interview with Kellerman after his Marquez fight (before the Mosley debacle) admitted he had some ring rust and felt he could do better. It is feasible that Mayweather wanted more time getting back into the game before taking on Pacquiao. It’s a possibility, sure. An explanation? Maybe.

As May 1st draws near, all eyes are going to be on Floyd Mayweather and Shane Mosley. This is not a walk in the park for Floyd, and Shane stands to earn the notoriety and respect he feels he never got earlier in his career. But try as you may, that little Filipino just doesn’t seem to want to go away. 

Please watch Mayweather vs  Mosley Fight Online to ever see whos the real P4P king.

Source: boxingnews24.com By Ryan Dunn

Cotto may have problem making weight

BEVERLY HILLS – Conditioning coach Alex Ariza liked what he saw at the Beverly Hills Hotel here yesterday.

No, it wasn’t the elegance of the "Pink Palace" (as the hotel, built in 1912, is affectionately called), not its scroll of past celebrity guests like Charlie Chaplin, Rudolph Valentino, Marilyn Monroe, John Wayne or John F. Kennedy, and neither those gorgeous ladies walking the premises.

What caught Ariza’s sharp eyes was the shape Miguel Cotto was in, in the last day of the press tour that carried the Puerto Rican champion, and Manny Pacquiao, the reigning pound-for-pound king from the Philippines, to New York, Puerto Rico and San Francisco and LA over the last five days.

"Did you see him out there? He must be weighing 160 pounds," said Ariza who came into the picture with the promise that he can keep Pacquiao moving up in weight and adding up more power without losing his speed. He introduced the Pinoy icon to the special program of plyometrics.

And they’re been extremely successful so far with big knockout wins over Diaz, Oscar dela Hoya and Ricky Hatton.

He said Cotto weighing as much (the WBO champion said a few days ago he was at 159 lb) gives him the feeling that the wide-bodied Puerto Rican might find it quite difficult making the catchweight limit of 145 lb. Pacquiao is just a little over 150, and with two months left is safely there.

"He (Cotto) must be 160 pounds and we're fighting at 145 with only two months left. He's got a lot more work to do than us. We also have work to do but Cotto has got to lose a lot of weight," said Ariza, who’s hoping that at 145 lb, Pacquiao could be as sharp, as fast and as strong as he was in his last fights.

Cotto said he plans to climb the ring at 160.

"He weighed in at 142 for the Oscar dela Hoya fight (which was fought at 147 lb) and climbed the ring at 148 1/2. Now if we can put him in that shape I don’t see anyone who will be able to take his punches. He really looked exceptionally well at 142," said Ariza, who’s coming over to Baguio City for the training.

Ariza said he’s not concerned at all that some people feel that Pacquiao is lagging behind Cotto in training. While the Puerto Rican is into his fourth week, Pacquiao will mark day one of his training on Sept. 21 at the earliest.

But Ariza said it doesn’t really matter because eight weeks have proven to be the perfect formula, and anything more or less than that won’t bring out the best in him.

"Believe me, once he's in training nothing can disrupt him. And once he's ready, he'd climb the gate just to fight," he said.

At the press conference, Pacquiao said when he climbs the ring against Cotto he will prove the world "who Manny Pacquiao is."

The 30-year-old icon is gunning for a record seventh world title in different weight classes.

Cotto capped the press tour by saying there’s nothing else to do now but train, and make sure that when the fight comes "you're in your best shape."

Cotto is scheduled to fly back to Puerto Rico, and in just a couple of days will be in Tampa, Florida for the big grind. Pacquiao, on the other hand, motors to San Diego today to do the ceremonial pitch in the Padres’ game before heading back to Manila later in the evening. - By Abac Cordero (Philstar News Service, www.philstar.com)

Source: http://ph.news.yahoo.com/star/20090916/tsp-cotto-may-have-problem-making-weight-d685dba.html

Watch Pacquiao vs Cotto

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Pacquiao: Mayweather showdown inevitable

LOS ANGELES – Without really looking ahead of the Miguel Cotto fight, Manny Pacquiao yesterday said what seems to be his inevitable dream fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr. is looming on the horizon.

Once the fight pushes through, Pacquiao could earn from $25 million to $30 million or roughly P1.5 billion.

But Pacquiao said it would all depend on the outcome of his fight with Cotto, the reigning WBO welterweight champion, in November, and Mayweather’s own match with Juan Manuel Marquez on Saturday.

Both Pacquiao and Mayweather are favored to prevail, and should no one spoil the fun, they could end up facing each other for what could be the fight of the decade or even greater than that, later next year.

“Kapag nanalo kami pareho ni Mayweather, kami na yan (If me and Mayweather prevail, then it should be us),” said Pacquiao on board the Gulfstream G200 eight-seater plane that took him out of San Francisco.

“Nag-uusap na. Basta. Nag-uusap na (Talks are on),” said Pacquiao who was joined in the 50-minute flight to Burbank in LA by trainer Freddie Roach, top-ranked publicist Fred Sternburg, Mike Koncz, Geng Gacal and Roger Fernandez.

Cotto took a separate plane, a private one as well, to Los Angeles and was joined by his father, Miguel Sr., lawyer Gabriel Penagaricano, coach Phil Landman, Top Rank big boss Bob Arum and his dynamic duo of Lee Samuels and Ricardo Jimenez.

Arum said Pacquiao stands to earn as much as $20 million for the Cotto fight, and while he has yet to confirm that there are indeed talks with the Mayweather camp, he’d rather have Pacquiao focusing on the coming fight.

At the AT&T Park in San Francisco earlier in the day, Pacquiao and Cotto came to watch the San Francisco Giants clobber the LA Dodgers, and for the fourth straight day the two boxers stood close to one another.

They were together up inside a VIP box, enjoying some cold drinks and hotdogs. They seem to like each other’s company but when they part in a couple of days, they should start training, thinking of ways how to beat each other.

After the match, played before a sell-out crowd of 40,000, Pacquiao and Cotto took over, holding a conference just off the Giants dugout, in front of some 3,000 fans who came to see the two world champions in the flesh, and not necessarily the ballgame.

A cold afternoon drizzle was not enough to shoo the crowd away as Pacquiao, Cotto and Arum fielded questions from the media and some of the fans, which occupied eight sections of the lower stands, as well.

Pacquiao hardly talked about his plans for the fight, and instead invited the fans to come to Las Vegas in November because "I’m going to hold a concert at Mandalay Bay after the fight."

Cotto was bolder this time, saying he’d train as hard as he can because "it’s going to be war" out there at the MGM Grand.

Pacquiao played basketball with friends in San Francisco at noon before leaving for LA.

From the airport, Pacquiao was taken straight to his $2 million home at the plush Hancock Park, took some rest and enjoyed dinner of grilled angus beef and steamed rice.

Roach was asked about Pacquiao’s training, and said they will be ready to go 12 rounds against Cotto. But boxing’s hottest trainer today may have something else in mind when he said training will be held in “Boracay.”

He was quick in making the correction that it should be Baguio. Later on, before boarding the private plane, he had a good laugh about having mentioned Boracay, which he fondly remembers as the island paradise in the Philippines.

Notes: Tickets to the Manny Pacquiao-Miguel Cotto "Firepower" in November are moving so fast that it you still don’t have one, chances are you’d end up watching the fight on pay-per-view or closed circuit or buying one for an incredible price on the black market. Of the close to 17,000 seats at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, only a few hundreds are left, those pegged at $1,000 and $750. “The $300s are gone,” said Top Rank’s Ricardo Jimenez. The tickets to the Pacquiao-Cotto fight are doing so great that Ringside A, Row A seats, where the stars belong, are being peddled on the Internet for $8,645 each or roughly P414,960, probably equivalent to a year’s salary of a bank manager in Manila. "It just shows how big this fight is and how the fans are looking forward to it," said Pacquiao’s adviser, Mike Koncz. “For some fights, hotels in Las Vegas are on a discounted price, but for this fight, for Pacquiao fights, they’re jacking them up,” he said. - By Abac Cordero (Philstar News Service, www.philstar.com)

Source: http://ph.news.yahoo.com/star/20090915/tsp-pacquiao-mayweather-showdown-inevita-a960e73.html

Let him run, attack - either way he loses, says Pacquiao

SAN FRANCISCO — Manny Pacquiao has already drawn up the scenarios for his Nov. 14 title fight with Miguel Cotto.

As he waited for the nine-hour flight out of San Juan, Puerto Rico to San Francisco via Atlanta yesterday, the Filipino crowd-drawer bared his deeper thoughts on the upcoming fight.

“Magandang laban (Good fight),” said Pacquiao, comfortably seated at the departure area, just after he had finished reading a few pages of the book “Builder of Dreams” by Antonio Meloto.

“Eto, ah, sasabihin ko sa inyo (This, I will tell you),” he continued.

“Tatakbo sa akin yan. If I press the fight I’m sure he would run. At kapag naghintay naman ako, papasok yan (And if I wait, he’ll come in),” said the reigning pound-for-pound champion.

In short, Pacquiao thinks that either way would be to his advantage, considering that he has both the speed, to catch Cotto somewhere along the way, and the power to put him down.

“Ganyan ang mangyayari, tumakbo man siya or pumasok siya, okay sa akin,” said Pacquiao, his pre-game analysis cut short by a line of Puerto Rican fans wanting to take pictures with him.

From fellow passengers to airport personnel and even the police, all of them wanted to be close to Pacquiao. One of them said, “I may be the only Puerto Rican rooting for you. Believe me. You’re a great fighter.”

It was around three in the afternoon, and a couple of hours earlier Pacquiao and Cotto were at the Centro de Bellas Artes de Caguas, right in the heart of the WBO champion’s hometown.

More than a thousand packed the theater, and they cheered wildly as Pacquiao and Cotto made a dramatic entrance, slowly rising through a hydraulic box that had kept them beneath an elevated stage.

Key members of both camps, along with some Puerto Rican officials, were introduced by Top Rank president Bob Arum.

Cotto, in an elegant brown suit, spoke in Spanish and was cheered on, while Pacquiao, more casual in a white shirt, blue jeans and running shoes, spoke in English.

Even the Puerto Ricans cheered him on, and there were even chants of “Man-ny! Man-ny!” as he took the microphone. He said, “I’m sure you will all root for Cotto because he’s your countryman. But thank you for supporting me, too.”

Before their explosive stage appearance, Pacquiao and Cotto held separate interviews in separate rooms with the Puerto Rican media. Cotto came with his lovely wife and four kids, while Pacquiao was with his lean entourage.

At one point, however, they ended up in the same room when they were not supposed to, and Pacquiao sat beside Cotto, shaking hands and again smiling, talking to one another like they were old friends.

Pacquiao and his men checked in at the trendy El San Juan Hotel and Casino past midnight Friday, and checked out of the hotel by the beach before 10 a.m. headed to the press conference and straight to the airport.

A line of black, heavily-tinted Ford Excursions, with burly bodyguards in dark suits, brought Pacquiao and Cotto to the arts center, and the convoy, with police motorcycle escorts, drove swiftly for 45 minutes like it was carrying the President.

Pacquiao’s trainer, Freddie Roach, did most of the talking during the interview, and faced tough questions on the schedule of their training which won’t start until Sept. 21 in Baguio City, while Cotto has been training for four weeks now.

“No one dictates our time but Manny and me. If they already started I don’t care. I know my job and we know what we’re doing,” said Roach.

“We’ll be in great shape and we’ll be ready to go 12 rounds. We want to take the rounds one at a time and if the knockout comes then it comes. We know he (Cotto) has a good chin but we’re gonna take away his advantage and use ours,” he added.

Pacquiao could only agree.

Notes: Bob Arum hasn’t been to Baguio, and he won’t miss the opportunity to be there while Manny Pacquiao trains. He said he’ll be up there in the country’s summer capital for a few days. The legendary promoter was asking what he should do once he lands in Manila, when Pacquiao, his boxer, said, “Don’t worry Bob. I will arrange a private plane for you. Don’t travel by land.” Pacquiao will train for four weeks in Baguio, under Freddie Roach who’ll be coming in on the 19th or 20th with the sparring partners... The ongoing press tour of five key cities in six days is turning out to be a huge success, prompting Pacquiao’s Canadian adviser, Mike Koncz, to say that “Whatever we accomplished in the press tours in each of Manny’s recent fights is just 50 percent of what we’ve accomplished so far here,” said Koncz, noting that not even for the Dela Hoya fight last December did the press tour look like this one. “Before, all we did was come to the city, do the press conference and leave,” said Koncz. This time, there are side-trips that only keep the fans going, like Pacquiao taking early-morning runs at Central Park in New York, gracing pictorials with HBO and ESPN or showing up at the municipal hall of Caguas, Puerto Rico. Sunday, the boxers take to the AT&T Park here in Frisco for the Giants vs Dodgers game, and by Monday they should be at the Beverly Hills Hotel in Los Angeles for another gig. On Tuesday, Pacquiao will be at the PETCO Park in San Diego for a game featuring the Padres, and later in the evening is scheduled to take the flight back to Manila. - By Abac Cordero (Philstar News Service, www.philstar.com)

Source: yahoo.com

watch Pacquiao vs Cotto

***Don't forget to watch the Mayweather vs Marquez fight on the 19th this September here.

Dela Hoya pays tribute to Pacquiao

Source: mb.com.ph

Oscar De La Hoya lists Manny Pacquiao not only as one of the greatest fighters he has fought but the guy with the fastest hands.

The Golden Boy, in his weekly blog in on-line edition of The Ring magazine, rattled off the names of Julio Cesar Chavez of Mexico, Pernell Whitaker of the US, Arturo Gatti of the US, Ike Quartey of Ghana, Fernando Vargas of the US, Bernard Hopkins of the US, and Pacquiao as “the best he faced in ten important categories.”

Said De La Hoya on Pacquiao: “His punches don’t come from your basic boxing style; they come from all sorts of weird angles. That’s what makes him difficult.”

Pacquiao was the underdog going into the fancied fight held at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

De La Hoya, who did not answer the bell for the ninth round against Pacquiao last year, hailed Chavez as being the best fighter and the one with the best chin and Whitaker as being the best boxer and the one with the quickest of feet and best defense.

The late Gatti was acknowledged as the best puncher, while Quartey had the best jab and Vargas as being the strongest. Hopkins, according to De La Hoya, now 36, was the smartest. Hopkins is the only other fellow aside from Pacquiao who was able to stop De La Hoya.

Meanwhile, Pacquiao reiterated on Thursday his intention to run for congressman of Saranggani province in Mindanao after an early-morning radio report said he has decided to walk away from the political arena.

Pacquiao said he has devoted so much of his time and money the last 12 months that he hasn’t changed his mind about his second crack at making big in politics.

Instead of challenging the bigwigs of the province, led by the Chiongbians, Pacquiao is being lured to run instead as a party-list representative.

Pacquiao is scheduled to face Miguel Cotto of Puerto Rico on November 14 at the MGM Grand.

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