118-pound titleholder Fernando Montiel may make his mandatory defense against Eric Morel on the November 14 Cotto-Pacquiao undercard. A fight between Edwin Valero and Humberto Soto is also in talks. (Photo via suljosblog.com)

View full size photo »

The November 14 undercard for the Miguel Cotto-Manny Pacquiao event in Las Vegas just might top the exciting Mayweather-Marquez undercard, if things turn out as they could.

While the main event promises to be a war and should, in my mind, be considered a Fight of the Year candidate when all is said and done, Top Rank is working on a couple other fights that could tear the house down, too.

The first is the long-rumored 135-pound title fight between titlist Edwin Valero and 130-pound beltholder Humberto Soto. Both are warriors with power; Valero, of course, has knocked out all 25 of the men he's faced in his pro career, and Soto is a lot better than his record.

Dan Rafael said recently that Arum badly wants to pit these two -- both Top Rank fighters -- against one another as a co-feature for the card. You'd be talking about two fights that could drop some jaws on the same card.

The other that has come up is a 118-pound title fight between Fernando Montiel and Eric Morel. Montiel (39-2-1, 29 KO) last fought in March, and is being allowed by the WBO to make an optional defense on September 12 against Alejandro Valdez. Montiel should beat Valdez, just as Soto should beat Joselinson dos Santos (12-0, 8 KO) on September 15, at least if that opponent stays the same.

Morel (41-2, 21 KO) returned to boxing in 2008 after three years off due to a prison term after being convicted of sexual assault of a 15-year old girl. Montiel-Morel was scheduled to happen in June on the Pavlik-Mora card, which later became the Lopez-Lontchi card, but visa issues for Morel prevented it.

Montiel-Morel is also possible for a December 5 card main evented by Kelly Pavlik and Paul Williams, if that goes through.