I think i can pretty confidently say that Pacquiao is NOT a welterweight. At least not by modern (last 30 odd years) standards for this sport. Most true welterweights today are men who walk around at 160 or close to that. Pacquiao could take a jog around the park, head to the can with the morning paper, and chew a pack of gum in a sauna and make the weight. If you told Pacquiao at 7 am that he’d have to make welterweight by say, 7 pm, that same day, I doubt it would bother him much. The guy walks around at 150-151. So no, Manny isn’t a true welter, and no, he does not “belong” at 147. He could certainly make occasional forays into the division, but I don’t think he could stay there without seriously jeopardizing his health.

Cotto is an interesting case because while he is thought of as a “big” welterweight in terms of weight, mass, by some, his actual ummm, “dimensions (?)” don’t differ a great deal from Manny’s. His head and body are well within Pacquiao’s punching range. Contrast that to someone like Paul Williams, or Kermit Cintron for instance, who Manny would have trouble hitting without taking some serious punishment himself.

I ask myself sometimes how Manny would fare against some of the welterweight legends of yesteryear and I see him losing against almost every single one: Napoles, Robinson(obviously), Gavilan, Trinidad, Leonard, Hearns, Cuevas, Benitez, Palomino, the list goes on… Now, at 140, things might be different.