Philippine Newspapers - Philippine Asian News Today

Freddie Roach, trainer of Man­ny Pacquiao, has budged on his demand of making Miguel Cotto drop down to 143-pounds for a fight with Manny Pacquiao on November 14 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Several days ago, Roach told media members that 143 was the weight he wanted the fight to take place. Cotto’s nutritionist told Top Rank’s Bob Arum that Miguel could only get down, in safe fashion, to a weight of 144-145 at most.

Arum recently called Roach, the two spoke about the fight and 145 appears to be the target weight for the bout. “Arum called me and I told him that I don’t have any prob­lems with the fight being at 145 pounds. In fact I don’t care if Cot-to wants to weigh 200 pounds,” Roach told Primera Hora . “I trust my fighter, so I care very little about the weight issues. I have not talked to Manny, who will make the final decision. He is a big man who makes his own de­cisions. All I can do is give it my recommendation.”

One recommendation is for Pacquiao to make more money than in his previous fight with Ricky Hatton in May. Pacquiao is said to have made around $12 million for that bout. “Obviously we want to see Manny get paid higher than in the previous fight. There is no reason to step back in terms of money, so those details will be discussed,” said Roach.

Gabriel Peñagarícano, the le­gal adviser to Cotto, told the pa­per that a lot of things need to be agreed upon before the deal is closed. “I’m not surprised that [Roach] has accepted the weight of 145 pounds, but that is only one of several items that will be dis­cussed and it’s taken at least two weeks to complete. There are a list of issues are being discussed.”(BoxingScene.com/ Mark Vester)