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Why boxing world will be urging on the Pacman against Cotto

Miguel Cotto may be loved by his loyal fans in Puerto Rico but the rest of the boxing world will be hoping Manny Pacquiao knocks him out in Saturday’s welterweight title bout to keep the Filipino on course for next year’s super-fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr.

American Mayweather did his bit by coming out of retirement and oozing class against Juan Manuel Marquez in September and now, as he rests up and has so far avoided the temptation to fight Shane Mosley, we can expect Mayweather-Pacquiao negotiations to begin soon – providing the Pac Man wins on Saturday.

Pacquiao’s legion of fans are confident he will beat Cotto, the bookmakers are confident and his revered trainer Freddy Roach approved the fight meaning he must be confident, but there is a nagging doubt that all won’t go to plan and that is because Cotto is a classy fighter.

His only defeat came at the hands of disgraced Mexican Antonio Margarito, who was subsequently banned for fighting with illegal padding in his gloves, and he is a strong, fast and a natural welterweight.

However, since that fight he has had two mediocre contests.

Firstly he knocked out the hopelessly mis-matched Britain Michael Jennings in five rounds before claiming a hard fought split-decision against Ghanaian Josh Clottey in June.

Time for Mayweather to enter the ring with Pacquiao

Floyd Mayweather Jr destroyed Mexican Juan Manuel Marquez with a ruthlessly clinical display in Las Vegas at the weekend but the non-title welterweight bout ended with an overall feeling of dissatisfaction.

The controversial weigh-in on the eve of the eagerly anticipated fight at the MGM Grand Garden Arena raised the biggest question mark of all.

Marquez, a gutsy five-times world champion in three different weight classes, conceded four pounds to the bigger and faster Mayweather after tipping the scales at 142.

Because the 12-round bout was initially contracted as a welterweight contest with a catch weight limit of 144 pounds, Mayweather was heavily fined for coming in two pounds over the limit.

Fight insiders later confirmed the undefeated American was penalised $600,000, a relatively small sacrifice for a significant advantage on fight night.

By the time the two boxers entered the ring on Saturday in front of a non-sellout crowd of 13,116, the difference was probably close to 10 pounds.

Marquez weighed in at 148 moments before the fight but Mayweather refused to disclose his own weight.