Who’s the worthiest of them all for Pacquiao?
The tattooed muscle man in skimpy white T-shirt rode the elevator erect and detached.
“Manny Pacquiao? He’s very much a boxer,” the bright-eyed macho man blurted upon being greeted and asked by this reporter.
Miguel Cotto was on his way to the dining hall of the Macau Venetian Hotel for breakfast two days before the Manny Pacquiao-Brandon Rios fight last November.
No, that did not directly rule out a Cotto rematch with Pacquiao, which again became a hot topic after the Puerto Rican boxing hero, whom Pacquiao had stopped in a catch weight clash, manhandled the faded Sergio Martinez of Argentina earlier this month.
But boxing money makers, led by Bob Arum, would do well to look for a willing next foe for Pacquiao, who has a formally calendared bout in Macau next November.
Last heard of, Cotto was mulling a fight against Tim Bradley at the Madison Square Garden later this year.
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The most available foe for the Pacman should be tall and scholarly Chris Algieri, whose upset victory over Ruslan Provodnikov, previously a top prospective Pacquiao foe, stirred the imagination of several boxing pundits.
That seemed a viable proposal, but only to those who have not viewed and assessed Algieri’s fighting worth.
In fact, Hall of Fame trainer Freddie Roach sounded more eager for Provodnikov to be able to get back at Algieri, who eked out a disputed split decision win over the rock-hard Russian, visibly on better defensive craft.
Anyway, the few local fans who had seen Algieri in action were one in writing off the tall American light welterweight as a worthless Pacquiao foe.
They find him frail, easy to hit, which means a fight against Pacquiao could result in a tasteless punching picnic, a pure dread.
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Of course, there’s the resurgent former champ Amir Khan, a British national of Pakistani lineage who lately has again been calling out Pacquiao.
Khan, claiming he again can mount a decent challenge, has been quoted as saying he’s quicker than Pacquiao with whom he had trained in Baguio City some three years back.
Khan continued to provide a proud advertisement of himself as the most qualified and exciting Pacquiao opponent.
Sad to say, Khan, sharp with his tongue, has obviously forgotten that dumb afternoon in Baguio when Pacquiao reluctantly agreed to spar with him.
It was always with a big laugh how those present in the Baguio sparring would recall that incident when Pacquiao, after patiently holding back, unleashed a thumping left hook that landed on Khan’s lower rib.
After moving out and pausing, Khan, as related by a broadcaster friend of Pacquiao, excused himself and claimed he had to get something from his training bag.
Khan walked off the ring and did not return that same day.
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No question about it, Mexican ring legend Juan Manuel Marquez is officially way ahead of everybody else in the Pacquiao sweepstakes.
For one, a fifth meeting between Pacquiao and Marquez, who speared the poorly covered Pacquiao dead in the sixth round of their fourth bout in December 2012, is being touted as a classic ahead of formal negotiations.
Everything was moving along fine, until it was announced that a random drug test would be in effect in the proposed fifth meeting between the two rivals.
Marquez, who had seemed ready to agree to a purse of $10 million after getting only $1.5 million against Mike Alvarado, balked.
Next heard off, Señor Marquez was already asking for the sky. He demanded $20 million during a meeting with Arum in New York.
Of course, Marquez did not need that much money.
As keen-eyed pundits would put it, he was just making sure he doesn’t get exposed to an all-revealing random drug test in his next fight.
