By Robert Morales
The Oscar De La Hoya Sweepstakes are over. The Manny Pacquiao Sweepstakes are off and running.
Fighters would do and say just about anything to get De La Hoya in the ring because they knew a fight with him would bring their biggest payday.
De La Hoya has retired and …

Roger Mayweather is the trainer and uncle of Floyd “Money” Mayweather, one of the greatest boxers in American history. On July 18th, “Money” Mayweather will be facing Juan Manuel Marquez in Las Vegas in what will be Floyd’s first fight in 19 months. In this video we ask Roger who he thinks is going to win, and in the tradition of the Mayweather family his response does not disappoint. We also get a lesson in boxing history and find out what he really thinks about
Manny Pacquiao.

Mosley said he can try and make 144 and then he plans to climb the ring against Pacquiao at 154 lb or anywhere he’s comfortable at without sacrificing his speed.

Mosley asked Roach why they can’t fight him at 147 lb just like Dela Hoya and the three-time Trainer of the Year simply said Mosley is not Dela Hoya.

Mosley is coming off a big win over Antonio Margarito last January. In that fight, the fighter from Pomona, California looked like a budding superstar, showing great speed and power to win inside nine rounds.

Puerto Rican Miguel Cotto, one of the possible next foes of Manny Pacquiao, has nothing but praises for the world’s pound-for-pound king.

Cotto, the WBO welterweight champion, told Examiner.com that he was also shocked by Pacquiao’s second round demolition of Ricky Hatton in the “Battle of East and West.”

“This was a huge surprise, I think, for everyone out there,” he remarked.

“He is one of the greatest boxers,” Cotto said of Pacquiao.

“I hear all the talk (on Pacquiao),” he mentioned on pitting him against “the Pacman.”

Aside from Cotto, other fighters deemed as Pacquiao’s possible opponents include Floyd Mayweather, Jr. and Juan Manuel Marquez (depending on who wins the July 18 Mayweather-Marquez bout).

“Sugar” Shane Mosley even offered a 40-60 split to face Pacquiao. But nothing has been finalized yet.

Cotto added, “But I keep my focus on this fight, on Joshua Clottey.”

The Puerto Rican will face Ghana’s Clottey on June 13 at the Madison Square Garden in New York.

Clottey, the former IBF welterweight champion, has a record of 35-2, with 21 KOs. Cotto, meanwhile, is at 33-1, with 27 KOs.

Pacquiao and his trainer, Freddie Roach, are expected to watch the bout at ringside.

Meantime, a Filipino fighter is set to fight in the Cotto-Clottey undercard. According to the Madison Square Garden website, www.TheGarden.com, Rodel Mayol will challenge WBO junior flyweight champion Ivan Calderon in 12 rounds.

Mayol, who hails from Mandaue City in Cebu, has 25 wins, three losses, and 19 knockouts. Puerto Rico’s Calderon, on the other hand, is undefeated at 32-0 with six knockouts.

“I just don’t feel Freddie and Manny will do it—Mosley is too big a threat. Was I a risk when I came down to 147? Freddie Roach is smart. He [Roach] saw something. Was Ricky Hatton a risk? Again, Freddie is a smart guy. That’s why he’s [Pacquiao] the best. And it’s why he’s [Freddie] not going to risk his fighter’s pound-for-pound status against a real champion like Mosley,” De La Hoya added.

Roach has been adamant that Pac quiao meet Mos ley at a catch weight between 142 and 144 pounds, since PacMan would be at a disadvantage at 147 pounds, which is Shane’s natural fighting weight.

By Dino Maragay
MANILA, Philippines – Filipino boxing icon Manny Pacquiao has been ranked at the 57th place on Forbes magazine’s 100 most powerful celebrities in the world for 2009 — the lone professional boxer to be included in the list.
This marks the first time Pacquiao made it on the elite …

LOS ANGELES (AFP) — World Boxing Association welterweight champion Shane Mosley said Wednesday that only a few details stand between him and an October 17 fight with Philippines superstar Manny Pacquiao.
Pacquiao flattened England’s Ricky Hatton in the second round last month while Mosley stopped Mexico’s Antonio Margarito in the ninth …

By Michael David Smith
Manny Pacquiao, the best pound-for-pound boxer in the world, said Wednesday that he’s prepared to accept a challenge from Shane Mosley to be his next opponent — provided the two can work out details of a contract.
“No problem, we can fight. As long we negotiate,” Pacquiao …

By Lance Pugmire
Boxing’s pound-for-pound top fighter Manny Pacquiao told a Filipino news organization today that he would be willing to fight Pomona’s world welterweight champion Shane Mosley later this year, pending negotiations.
Though Mosley’s camp was quick to announce Pacquiao’s interest, saying Mosley would agree to fight at a catch weight …

By John Martinez
Ironboxing.com Boxing websites and forums are buzzing with activity regarding trainer extraordinaire, Freddie Roach, and whom he may be training next.
In a story carried by Eastsideboxing.com, but originally posted on Ringtalk.com, James Slater writes that Manny Pacquaio’s trainer, Freddie Roach, is set to become the newest instructor for …

VW: Ok. Second question - If Mayweather was to fight Manny Pacquiao, who do you like in that fight and why?

JC: (Laughs). This is a fight I would love to watch. I love and respect these two guys more than anyone. To be honest, Pacquiao is the best right now. And also, we’ve never seen Floyd Mayweather face a great southpaw like this one. Pacquiao would give Mayweather a helluva fight. He’s not gonna allow Mayweather to do what he wants to do, he will force him to fight. Mayweather is just such a smart fighter. He is the best, and I love to watch him, but Pacquiao is my favorite to watch right now. I can’t tell you who would win that one.

By Mark Vester
The returning Floyd Mayweather Jr. was confronted with a serious question. Why is he fighting Juan Manuel Marquez instead of Shane Mosley? Mosley is viewed by many as the top fighter at 147-pounds, a division where Mayweather resides. Floyd returns on  July 18 against Marquez at catch-weight of 144-pounds. …

By Krista Angela M. Montealegre
Filipino fans, boxing experts and even superstar Manny Pacquiao are urging Gerry Peñalosa to retire, but the boxer nicknamed “Fearless” will not hang his gloves just yet.
After the younger Juan Manuel Lopez handed him what could be the worst beating of his 20-year career for …

Despite recent reports that he's only interested in facing Floyd Mayweather Jr., it appears Manny Pacquiao will play the waiting game before dismissing all other options for his next fight. Although his next bout is already set for October 17th, he has yet to decide who will be the lucky winner of the PacMan Sweeptakes and it looks like Floyd Mayweather Jr., Miguel Cotto, Shane Mosley, Juan Manuel Marquez and others are all still in the running. Of course, that being said, it should already be clear who the winner will be.

These talks have been heating up for a while and confirmation of the reports lead many to wonder how much longer will the current pound-for-pound champ stay in the drivers seat?

A Mosley/Pacquiao fight would be the best fight to be made for the simple fact that Floyd will make it a strategical showdown, and Cotto would add an element of intrigue, but Mosley and Manny are two fighters that fight every second of every round and would be in an all out war from bell one to bell rung! Definitely a fitting way to put it because I don’t see that fight going the distance.

With many options already on the table, there seems to be yet another now that has spoken loud and clear, making it even easier considering that he’s the only of the three willing to go down to 143lbs.

Usually in boxing, common sense comes to the fore in the end, when all parties concerned realise that the fight has to happen due to the sheer size of the event and of the money to be made from it. Let’s hope this turns out to be the case with Pacquiao-Mayweather just as it was with Hatton-Pacquiao - another fight that looked to be off for a while due to disagreements over the monetary share the two fighters were to be paid. In the end, both sides came to their senses, but in an interview today with The Philippine Star, Arum made it clear Mayweather and his team will have to make a big concession if the fight we all want to see is actually made.

“You can tell Floyd Mayweather that Bob Arum says he’s delusional,” Arum said. “Floyd is not the attraction. Manny is the attraction. Floyd’s got no idea what he’s talking about. Floyd must be hallucinating when he said he wants the bigger purse and wouldn’t agree to a 50/50 split. Even a 50/50 split with Floyd Mayweather is nonsense.”

Manny Pacquiao is planning to be ringside in London on June 27 to cheer o his training partner Amir Khan when he challenges for the WBA light-welterweight title. Khan is presently training with Freddie Roach in Hollywood, but says Pacquiao, who knocked out Ricky Hatton last month, has said that he want to see Khan take on Andreas Kotelnik.

“Manny is back in the Philippines at the moment, but he’s said that he would like to come to the fight, and we’ll look after him,” Khan said. “It will be good to have him there.”

Miguel Cotto insists he will have too much for Joshua Clottey on June 13, a fight that will be shown live on Setanta Sports.

To watch this fight plus, of course, the hotly-anticipated David Haye-Wladimir Klitschko bout the following week, sign up to Setanta by clicking here.

Cotto has been linked with massive fights against Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather but in the Ghanaian he faces a tough opponent.

The two-weight champion is confident as long as he is on his game, there is no chance of Clottey leaving Madison Square Garden with the WBO welterweight title though.

“I feel that Manny Pacquiao’s big enough and should be strong enough for me and him to have a good fight,” said the 37-year-old, 5-foot-9 Mosley, a former world junior middleweight champion.

“Pacquiao was the only one that said yes, he would actually fight me, and I commend him for that. That’s how tough fighters should do.”

Mosley said he won’t be like the now-retired De La Hoya, who dodged criticisms about a supposed mismatch on his favor prior to his fight with Pacquiao in December last year in Las Vegas.

“The pound-for-pound guy is Pacquiao, so that’s my number one choice,” said Mosley. “I think about the future and accomplish my goal. My goal is to be the pound-for-pound No.1 fighter.”

By Robert Cassidy
To this corner, Manny Pacquiao is in the driver’s seat. He’s on top, he should dictate terms. He is wildly popular at home and in the States. If he fights Floyd Mayweather Jr. or Sugar Shane Mosley or Miguel Cotto, it’s big business.
Let’s try to make some sense …

“I want it to be known that I want to fight Pacquiao and I want to fight him now,” Mosley said. “I’m willing to meet at a catch weight to make that happen. I know this is what [Pacquiao trainer] Freddie Roach wants as well, as he has previously stated this to press. I am the best fighter in boxing and I am ready to reclaim the title of No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter.”

Mosley didn’t make it clear how low he would be willing to drop, but you have to figure he would need to make at least 144 pounds. Mosley weighed 146 for a few welterweight fights, but hasn’t been lower than that since 1999, when he made his last lightweight title defense at 135 pounds.

If you ask me, I’d love to see Mosley get Mayweather. I’ve wanted to see that fight since back in the day, when Mosley was lightweight champion and Mayweather was junior lightweight champion in the late 1990s. But I also really want to see Pacquiao-Mayweather, which is easily the biggest fight boxing has to offer. It would match the pound-for-pound king (Pacquiao) against the guy who gave it up by retiring but never lost it in the ring (Mayweather). I hope that fight happens and that Mosley is waiting for the winner.

“I want it to be known that I want to fight Pacquiao and I want to fight him now,” Mosley told the AFP. “I’m willing to meet at a catch weight to make that happen.

“I know this is what Freddie Roach wants as well. I am the best fighter in boxing and I am ready to reclaim the title of No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter.”

Roach has said the weight could be 143 or 144 pounds. Mosley, 37, has not fought below 146 since 1999 and has fought as high as 154.

“When I was growing up I used to admire Oscar de la Hoya, he was my hero,” Pacquiao explained.

“I also used to like Roy Jones Jnr and Julio Cesar Chavez but Oscar was my number one.

“I was very honoured to actually fight him, that was a real high point for me because of the amount of respect I had for him.”

Although Hatton had built a reputation as a hurtful puncher, Pacquiao said the now-retired “Golden Boy” possessed the edge in power.

“Hatton was strong but he wasn’t like de la Hoya because Oscar was very heavy-handed,” he said.

“Anyway, at this level when anyone hits you it hurts!”

His easy-going demeanour can make you forget that he is one of the most dangerous unarmed men on the planet. Pacquiao doesn’t talk big but his record speaks for itself.

The Asian superstar believes a big part of his continuing success is down to the input of trainer Freddie Roach at the Wild Card gym in Los Angeles.

“Freddie has helped me a lot,” he explained.

“He has shown me a lot of new things and helped me to develop. He is a great trainer and I think he is the best in the world.”

Pacquiao’s mentor Freddie Roach has stated several times that the de la Hoya fight at the welterweight limit of 147 pounds was a one-time excursion and that henceforth Pacquiao will be fighting at the junior-welterweight limit of 140 pounds. Roach also said that if any of the fighters residing at welterweight and above wants to tango with Pacquiao then they must boil down to 142 lbs. for the fight to happen. There are many who decry this demand as Pacquiao just trying to get an unfair advantage. On closer examination, however, this is just an attempt by Roach to level the playing field for Pacquiao on the premise that making weight would weaken Mosley and Cotto a bit. Though Pacquiao fought de la Hoya at 147 lbs. he weighed in for that fight at an official weight of 142 lbs. which was the highest weigh-in weight of his career. For his fight with Ricky Hatton, Pacquiao weighed in at 138 lbs. So the contention that Pacquiao should fight Mosley and Cotto at the welterweight limit of 147 since he fought de la Hoya at 147 holds no water. For the record, Pacquiao has never fought as a welterweight his whole career. His highest official weight was 142 lbs., which is closer to junior welterweight than welterweight.

On the other hand, Mosley and Cotto are too big for Pacquiao. While Pacquiao’s highest fighting weight was 148 ½ lbs. Cotto and Mosley balloon to more than 160 lbs. come fight night. Cotto is 5’7” and has been fighting as a welterweight since December 2006 while Mosley is 5’9” and has a reach of 74 inches and has been fighting as a welterweight and Junior middleweight since September 1999.