Can Miguel Cotto Beat Manny Pacquiao in a rematch at 154?

It is funny how much things can change over the course of seven months. After Manny Pacquiao administered a prolonged beating on Miguel Cotto in November of last year, nobody was talking about a rematch.

Everyone was talking about the “inevitable” showdown between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather.

It was going to be the biggest fight in boxing history. Unfortunately, it never happened. Pacquiao and Mayweather could not reach an agreement and fans were denied the fight they most want to see.

Instead, Pacquiao and Mayweather won one-sided contests in their respective match-ups against Joshua Clottey and Sugar Shane Mosley. This resulted in renewed public demand that the two camps re-enter the negotiations process.

But what happens if Pacquiao and Mayweather still cannot reach an agreement? After all, the demand for the fight was already through the roof and yet somehow or another, these two could not come to terms last time around. What makes us think it will be any different this time?

If Pacquiao and Mayweather repeat their disgraceful song and dance routine, perhaps a rematch with Cotto is not such a bad idea. After all, Cotto redefined himself as an elite caliber fighter with his impressive victory over Yuri Foreman at Yankee Stadium.

Pacquiao already beat Cotto, so the chance at another big payday and a title in an unprecedented eighth weight class might be alluring for Pacquiao. For Cotto, it is a chance to even the score. It is a fight that could make sense for both fighters if Pacquiao and Mayweather both stubbornly refuse to give the fans the fight we want to see.

Could Cotto do better in a rematch? Emanuel Steward believes he can, and he had this to say on Monday’s edition of On the Ropes Boxing Radio:

“I think he would have much better success and Manny Pacquiao is one of the greatest fighters of all time to me. For quite a few reasons, one, the 145 (pounds) which may not seem that significant but sometimes the human body is very strange. It can have a little certain point that it can get to and it says if you go one pound more you’re going to actually cross the borderline from New Jersey to New York—which means it’s a new Governor, new rules, everything, and the human body can do that sometimes. Maybe the 146 or 47 was the line that changed everything in the physical system of Cotto, but beyond that, I think that fact that he told me that his biggest problem he had in the fight was, number one which we corrected, he was fighting too low. The punch he got hit with, he said the first time he never saw it. He was down in such a position where he really couldn’t see punches that good at that stage because he was bending too low. So he has his balance better, and he feels that the speed—the speed of Pacquiao bothered him tremendously because I guess in his sparring he wasn’t with fast type guys like that, and as a result he had problems. But this fight, we had him in with one of my top young professional fighters, Dominique Dolton, who was supposed to have been on the undercard who is 6-0. He’s a very, very fast guy on the same speed level of a Sugar Ray Leonard. So he adjusted to the speed very easily, and so therefore, Yuri Foreman’s speed was not really much of a problem to him compared to Dolton who he had in training. So I think the fact that he would be better prepared physically with the higher weight and also that he would be better prepared and adjusted to deal with the blazing speed of Pacquiao would give him a definite different odds of winning because Manny is a great fighter who fights from a rhythm and it is very difficult to anticipate his movement with his feet as well as his hands. He’s a very, very good fighter. He doesn’t just come in with a straightforward type of position. You have to be able to deal with speed as well as power.”

What do you think? Do you think Cotto can beat Pacquiao in a rematch at 154 pounds?