Arum puts potential Pacquiao-Cotto fight up to the fighters

When the subject of a potential clash between pound-for-pound king Manny Pacquiao and welterweight contender Miguel Cotto came up, Top Rank promoter Bob Arum says it's "up to the fighters," but that he'd definitely do it if they wanted to.

Cotto has Michael Jennings this Saturday in a comeback bid from his first pro loss, while Pacquiao of course has junior welterweight world champion Ricky Hatton to contend with on May 2.

If both were to win, and Cotto won whatever his scheduled June fight ends up being, Arum would be wrong to not try to make Pacquiao-Cotto. If you count out Floyd Mayweather, Arum stands to make the most money for Top Rank by putting two of his best fighters up against one another, rather than mixing either with a fighter from Golden Boy or any other promoter. If Pacquiao was willing to fight Antonio Margarito (and he says he was), I see no reason he wouldn't fight Miguel Cotto.

It does again bring up the issue of hypocrisy in boxing. It's not a big deal and it's totally understandable, but it was just a few months ago that MIguel Cotto was one of the guys blasting Oscar de la Hoya for fighting "flyweight" Pacquiao and "hurting boxing." You're damn right Miguel Cotto would take a big money fight with Pacquaio. I guess he's not too small anymore.

Again, the whole thing about that was that every one of those fighters -- Cotto, Margarito, whomever -- were jealous that Pacquiao was getting the payday and not them. Interestingly Ricky Hatton never made a peep about it, and he had a far more realistic shot of fighting Oscar at some point than Margarito or Cotto ever did.

Should they both truck on, Pacquiao-Cotto is a hell of a fight. It's an absolute must-see. It's way too early in the rumor mill to take it very seriously, but it's been floated now, so it's out there to be judged.