With Floyd out, Cotto rematch eyed

MANILA, Philippines - Floyd Mayweather Jr. can retire if he wants to and Manny Pacquiao will just end up fighting whom he wants to.

Amid reports that the American superstar has “retired” a second time, Pacquiao watched as Miguel Cotto stopped Yuri Foreman yesterday to crown himself as the new WBA super-welterweight champion.

Bob Arum had said that if Cotto wins, and the fight with Mayweather doesn’t push through, then he might push for a second match between Pacquiao and the new super-welterweight champion from Puerto Rico.

That’s Plan B, as far as Arum is concerned, even if the Top Rank president reportedly isn’t buying Mayweather’s retirement episode, which came out of The Examiner the other day, hook, line and sinker.

Michael Koncz, Pacquiao’s chief adviser, talked to www.insidesports.ph yesterday about the possibility of a rematch between Pacquiao and Cotto, who was stopped inside 12 rounds by the Pinoy icon last November.

Koncz talked about a “minor discussion” within Team Pacquiao just as they left the Yankee Stadium after the Cotto victory. The Canadian adviser to the world’s greatest fighter said they’re going “to see what happens.”

A rematch with Cotto should give Pacquiao a crack at the “Eighth Wonder,” an eighth world title in eight different weight classes. So far, he’s the only fighter in history to have seven world titles in differnt weight classes.

Still, it’s the fight with Mayweather which everybody’s been hoping to see in November.

For one, facing Cotto at 154 lb may put Pacquiao at a disadvantage.

While Pacquiao had faced Oscar dela Hoya, Cotto and Joshua Clottey at 147 lb, he’d never weighed in heavier than 142 because his handlers feel that’s as far as he can go, and climb the ring at around 149.

Cotto must have climbed the ring way over 160 pounds against Foreman.

“Mabigat na masyado ang laban sa 154 (A fight at 154 would be too heavy),” a Team Pacquiao insider said was how Pacquiao had reacted.

Mayweather said in a videotape that he wants another “year or a couple of years off boxing” and if he does then it should dash all hopes that the superfight between him and Pacquiao would ever happen.

Aside from Cotto, also lining up for a shot at Pacquiao are former welterweight champion Antonio Margarito and Juan Manuel Marquez.