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Mailbag: Mucho Manny

Yahoo Sports

Manny Pacquiao's dominating WBC lightweight title victory over David Diaz on Saturday set the readers to emailing.

I'm going to answer all your Pacquiao questions, plus a few on other boxing topics, in this edition of the weekly mailbag. My responses are in italics, as always.

OSCAR VS. MANNY?

Do you really think that Oscar De La Hoya is going to fight Manny Pacquiao? How embarrassing to know that a new pound-for-pound king is going to fight those past champions like De La Hoya. Oscar is bigger than Manny and would like to share glory with our champion. De La Hoya should just pick on someone his own size.

Kerv
Manila, Philippines

I don't anticipate a De La Hoya-Pacquiao match being made. Top Rank promoter Bob Arum said he'd received a call from Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer about putting together a De La Hoya-Miguel Cotto bout for December, assuming Cotto gets past Antonio Margarito on July 26. Arum said Schaefer sounded sincere, but frankly, I doubt De La Hoya wants to take on Cotto. But Oscar should be ashamed of himself for even thinking of fighting Pacquiao, given the size differences between them.

SPEED AND POWER

In your opinion, who would be the best opponent for Manny who can match his power and speed?

Lester T.
Philippines

Some fighters, like Joan Guzman, could match his speed. Others, like Edwin Valero, can match his power. But I'm not aware of anyone in a weight class Pacquiao may fight in who can match him in both categories.

HE'S THE BEST

Manny displayed a boxing clinic on Saturday. Any talk about who is the best pound-for-pound fighter now that Floyd Mayweather is retired should have ceased. David Diaz was just outclassed but had the heart to continue. Manny is No. 1 until someone knocks him off, if they can.

Aaron S. Jackson
Honolulu

Pacquiao was extremely impressive. Going into the fight, I wasn't buying his argument that he was having trouble making 130 pounds, and so I suspected that his speed would decrease as he moved up to 135. But it was clear by his performance on Saturday that he was telling the truth. Pacquiao was sensational, much better, honestly, than I expected. But with all due respect to Diaz, he was a more limited opponent than the other contenders for the top spot, Joe Calzaghe and Cotto, have faced recently. I have no argument with Pacquiao as No. 1, but I'm not going to fully make up my mind until after I watch the Cotto-Margarito fight on July 26.

WOULD 'PRETTY BOY' DOMINATE?

If Pretty Boy Floyd came out of retirement to fight Pacquiao, a match which would be a huge payday for both of them, how dominant would he be against the smaller Filipino star?

Quang
Sacramento, Calif.

Pacquiao himself said last week that he wouldn't fight Mayweather because he feels Mayweather is too big for him, which is obviously correct.

DEBATING VALERO

Do you think Edwin Valero has a chance against Manny Pacquiao? I'm not very familiar with Valero but I've seen some of his fights on YouTube. He is like Vic Darchinyan when he throws his punches. He shows no defense and fires wide punches which you can see coming from a mile away. I would rather see a third fight between Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez or see him move up in weight to fight Ricky Hatton. What do you think?

Ray
Bacolod, Philippines

Valero would have a chance, because he's a big puncher. But I agree with your assessment of him. I think Manny's fast hands would be the difference. He'd tear Valero to shreds. But Valero is now working with Kenny Adams, which is the best move he could have made. Adams is one of the best teachers on the planet in terms of instilling fundamentals and correcting mistakes. Valero's best hope of beating Pacquiao is listening to Adams. A fight with Valero would be fun, because both men would be throwing bombs. Personally, I would love to see Pacquiao-Hatton, though, because it would be extraordinarily intense and the passion in the arena would be palpable.

SOTO-LORENZO FIASCO

Can you explain to me what happened during the Humberto Soto-Francisco Lorenzo fight on Saturday? I've never seen a referee break up the fighters for no reason until Joe Cortez did that a few times. The only reason he should have stepped in that first time was to stop the fight, which almost looked like that's what he was doing. I respect Cortez, but that was the worst round of reffing I've ever seen.

Christian
Austin, Texas

I agree that that bout wasn't Joe's best work. I'm going to do a column on Wednesday on the entire situation. But for those who didn't see it, Soto and Lorenzo were fighting for the WBC interim super featherweight title. Soto was battering Lorenzo and was on the verge of stopping him. As they were fighting in Lorenzo's corner, Cortez jumped between them, as if he were going to stop the fight. He then did not and moved away. Lorenzo, taking a beating, voluntarily took a knee, which counts as a knockdown. Cortez got between them again to begin the count. Soto reached around Cortez' left side and threw a light punch that grazed Lorenzo on the head. It was clearly after Lorenzo was down and Cortez was between the fighters. However, three-year-olds hit each other harder.

Lorenzo's corner urged him to go down and stay down. Cortez gave him five minutes to recover, as the rules say he must do when there is an intentional foul. After five minutes, Lorenzo was laying on his back and said he could not continue. As a result, by the rules, Cortez was required to disqualify Soto. But the WBC opted not to give the title to Lorenzo and they'll fight again for the belt that Pacquiao was forced to vacate when he won the lightweight title from Diaz on Saturday.

THE BIG BOYS
Wow! What a card Saturday night. Even the undercard fights were awesome. With all this talk of Pacman fighting Hatton at 140, I noticed that Manny came in at 148 pounds on Saturday. So why can't he fight welterweights? A Hatton match would be a can't miss bout, but if he's walking into the ring as a welterweight how bout a Cotto matchup? Do you think after he gets rid of Hatton, he might lure Pretty Boy Floyd out of retirement?

Daniel Amaro
Calgary, Alberta

Pacquiao went up in weight from 135 to 148 by rehydrating. But a guy like Cotto would go up to as much as 162 after he hydrates. Manny is simply not big enough to fight at welterweight. Are there welterweights he could beat? Of course. But he's not big enough to beat the great ones, like Cotto. And for that reason, I don't see him fighting Mayweather even if Mayweather comes back.

BIG PURSE

How much money did Manny make on Saturday?

Joy Urbano
Pampanga, Philippines

Pacquiao received a guarantee of $3.5 million. He'll also share in the pay-per-view revenues. Diaz made $850,000 and will also share in the PPV profits.

DIAZ WAS AWFUL

Manny definitely deserves praise for that performance and I don't see too much competition that can take him at that weight. Although Pacquiao looked like he was running out of gas, Diaz was completely on empty. Was Diaz that good? He looked horrible. Pacman could own this division. Hatton would be a great fight, but welterweight remains boxing's best division.

James R.
Paterson, N.J.

Diaz is a good, solid professional fighter, but he's not nearly as talented as someone like Pacquiao. Frankly, I didn't think Pacquiao looked at all like he was running out of gas, James. I thought his conditioning was superb, as trainer Freddie Roach said it would be. Frankly, I'm going to disagree with your assessment of welterweight being the best class. I think there are several better, including lightweight, super flyweight and super featherweight. At lightweight, you have Pacquiao, Campbell, Guzman, Juan Manuel Marquez, Juan Diaz, Joel Casamayor, Michael Katsidis, Amir Khan, Julio Diaz and, soon, Valero. There are more, but I think that's a pretty good start.

COTTO OR JUANMA?

Who do you think was/is the best prospect, Miguel Cotto when he won his first world title or Juan Manuel Lopez today? I would make a strong case for "JuanMa," because I believe he's more versatile than Cotto was then, he can box a little more and has great hand speed and devastating power. I'd love your opinion and would love to be in your column.

Carlos A. Velez
Puerto Rico

Now that you've made it, Carlos, don't be a stranger. I'd probably go with the younger Cotto, honestly. I think Lopez is one of the game's exciting young fighters, but Cotto was facing much better competition on his way up than Lopez has, in my opinion. And I'll have to disagree with you when you say Lopez has more power. Cotto was and remains a fearsome puncher, especially to the body. He's not the kind of guy who knocks people out with a single punch, but most fighters who face him are never the same afterward.

SUSPICIOUS INJURIES

I was reading an article about former WBA heavyweight champion Nikolai Valuev, which said his upcoming fight with WBA champion Ruslan Chagaev has been postponed because Chagaev injured his Achilles tendon. Granted a torn tendon is reason enough to cancel a fight, but it seems to me that when it comes to defending his title, Chagaev keeps getting injured just days prior. A champion is required to defend his title, but if the man can't be healthy enough to defend it, he should give it up and let other people fight for it.

Derek Linville
Weagwan, S. Korea

This is the third time Chagaev has pulled out of a title bout. This is the instance when an interim title makes sense. The WBA needs to select an opponent to face Valuev for its interim title. If and when Chagaev is healthy enough to fight, he should face the winner for the "regular" title.