Pacquiao Blog: Distance Fight

The most difficult battle for Pacquiao or not, he is still going to be almost P100 million richer come November 14.

Sports promoter Bob Arum said that a huge windfall is waiting for both Pacquiao and WBO welterweight Gabriel Cotto of Puerto Rico.

"The way things are going, Manny Pacquiao is going to get more than US$20 million and Cotto will get $13 million," Arum said.

He said that this amount would include the pay-per-view, TV and box-office rights here and abroad.

Arum, the founder of Top Rank Inc, probably the world's biggest boxing promotions group, said that the tickets are already selling for ten times its worth in Las Vegas, more than a month before the fight at the MGM Garden Arena.

He promised that the Pacquiao-Cotto fight is going to be exciting fight.

Arum said that the fight is going to go the distance.

"I really don't see how Freddie Roach (the trainer of Pacquiao) saw this as going to end in a knockout," he said.

"This is going to be a distance fight," he said.
"Cotto is totally different from Mayweather or Marquez," he said.

Arum gave tips to Pacquiao on how to beat Cotto.

"Cotto would put pressure on Pacquiao. He is tremendous when he goes forward. But he is not so good going backwards," he said.

"I don;t know how he (Pacquiao) can do it with Cotto, but that's when he should strike," he said.

Arum described Cotto as a converted southpaw.

"He is left-handed fighting from the right side," he said.

"Pacquiao has to prepare like he never did before. if he dedicates himself, he has a good chance," he said.

Freddie Roach, however, is sticking with his guns and said that Pacquiao is going to knock out Cotto.

Roach said that it would not be an early knockout that will decide the game.

"I say Round 10 or 11. It's going to be a hard, hard fight. We would have to start pressure and put pressure on him," he said.

Roach is not conceding like Arum that Cotto is stronger and bigger than Pacquiao but then said that his ward is better in the brain game.

"I think he (Cotto) is smarter than Ricky (Hatton, the British boxer whose International Boxing Organization light-welterweight crown Pacquiao took via a two-roudn knockout last May) but not quite as intelligent as Manny Pacquiao," Roach said.

Also early Friday morning, Pacquiao got his wish to jog with the Philippine Military Academy cadets.

"I am an Army reserve officer. I should be a model to them," Pacquiao said.

Pacquiao is patently humble about his chances against Cotto.

"I will win by decision. Iyan ang prediction nila," he said.