INQUIRER Sports

MANILA, Philippines - The moment the first punch is thrown in the Miguel Cotto-Joshua Clottey duke-out Saturday (Sunday in Manila) at the Madison Square Garden, it won’t only signify the start of an expectedly brutal welterweight championship contest.

It will also mark the moment when the Manny Pacquiao sweepstakes gets into overdrive.

The Puerto Rican Cotto, who will be defending his belt against Clottey, leads seven boxers who have been short-listed as Pacquiao’s next possible foes.

A win will put Cotto in Pacquiao’s cross-hairs. Largely overlooked, Clottey, too, has suddenly found his name in the lottery.

“If he wins, he becomes a viable opponent,” Top Rank chief and Pacquiao promoter Bob Arum told Maxboxing.com. “I mean, there’s no monkey wrench; he’s not an outsider. “He’s a guy in there with a helluva shot to win.”

The fight that leads in the poll of public opinion continues to be Pacquiao against undefeated Floyd Mayweather Jr., who mixes it up with Juan Manuel Marquez in July.

But Arum has repeatedly punched holes into that idea. And “Pretty Boy” hasn’t helped by continuing to make demands that have him looking like he’s deliberately side-stepping the reigning pound-for-pound champion.

“Mayweather is taking the position that unless he gets more money, there will never be a fight—that’s absurd,” Arum said on Setanta Sports News.

“Manny is the most sought-after boxer on the planet. If Mayweather persists with this position, a fight will never happen,” added Arum, who has been the leading pitchman for the Cotto-Pacquiao tussle.

“If Cotto beats Clottey that’s just as big a fight,” Arum said.

But Clottey believes that even if Cotto beats him, the Puerto Rican might not be in shape for a Pacquiao fight at the end of the year.

“Cotto is going to fight Pacquiao if he wins—that’s what I’ve been hearing,” Clottey told AFP. “Cotto is going to get his. Even if he wins it is not going to be easy at all. He’s not going to be able to fight somebody else.”

Aside from Cotto, Mayweather Jr. and Clottey, the other fighters being named as possible foes are Shane Mosely, Marquez, Michael Katsidis and lightweight champion Timothy Bradley, who made a point in his favor by defeating Kendall Holt.