By Mark Vester

After Manny Pacquiao demolished Oscar De La Hoya last Saturday in Las Vegas, forcing the former six-division champion to call it quits after eight rounds, some began to wonder how Pacquiao would do against the man people view as the number one fighter at 147 - WBA welterweight champ Antonio Margarito.

Margarito fights at welterweight, but has the appearance and power of a middleweight Pacquiao moved up from lightweight to welterweight to fight De La Hoya. He plans to moved down to junior welterweight to fight Ricky Hatton in 2009. Both Pacquiao and Margarito are promoted by Top Rank.

If Top Rank and Pacquiao want it, Margarito is willing to take the fight.

"Pacquiao looked very good and showed that he can fight against the better welterweights. If he and the promoters agree, and want to do it [a fight with me] - I will gladly do it," Margarito told El Nuevo Dia .

At the end of the day, there is too much of a size difference between Pacquiao and Margarito. In 2003, Roy Jones Jr. moved up by 25-pounds to the heavyweight division to beat John Ruiz for a title. Jones was smart enough to moved back down instead of fighting the giants like Lennox Lewis and the Klitschko brothers. Pacquiao can probably fight the smaller welters like Mosley, Cotto or an Andre Berto, but fighters like Margarito and Paul Williams are seen as being too big.

Nobody has chased after De La Hoya any harder than Margarito. He tells the paper that Oscar should walk away from the ring and retire. He doesn't believe that anyone will want to see him fight De La Hoya anymore.

"He should retire because he looked very bad against Pacquiao. I believe people were interested in a fight between me and De La Hoya, but now nobody wants to see it," Margarito said.

Margarito has a big fight lined up on January 24, against former three-division champion Shane Mosley. Win or lose, Margarito will face Miguel Cotto in a June rematch. Still, he is not overlooking Mosley. He says the Mosley fight is something he takes very seriously.

"I have always been willing to fight Cotto again, but right now I am not thinking about Cotto. My concentration is on Mosley, who is a very strong opponent and I am preparing very well to come out with my hand raised high in the same fashion as I did against Cotto, where very few people believed that I could win and I showed to everyone what Antonio Margarito can do," Margarito said.

Call me delusional but I think Pacman actually has a chance in this fight! He's fast much faster than Cotto and won't gas; obviously if Margarito can turn it into a brawl he'll win by first round knockout, but I genuinely think with the great footwork and speed Pacman has he could potentially box and move for 12 rounds to beat Margarito.

I don't think it would take anything away from Manny if he didn't take a fight with Margarito.. I mean, some (moono for example) will probably say that he is dodging opponents if he'll fight one guy at 147 and not another, but common, the size difference is enormous. Pac P4P should not be considered 147 pounds. No way. At least not at this stage.. Who knows, if his defence over the next year and a half heading into 2010 proves to be as good as Mayweather, and he can hurt opponents at 140 and maybe some of the smaller ones at 147, then he might be able to step in the ring with the likes of Margarito..

But the guy went from 135, skipped 140 to fight at 147.. It's a bit unfair to go, right, now he's at 147 he should be fighting the best 147 pounder..

As the Jones example said, no one expected Jones to go up against Lewis or the Klit brothers....

It would be interesting but I would much rather see Margarito/Williams II.
Why are these two fighters avoiding each other? They are two of the biggest Welter Weights today and yet both want to fight midgets, I will grant Williams more slack because Williams has been jumping all over the scale and fighting at 3 different weight classes while Tony is stuck fighting at 147 and every one knows Tony should be fighting at the least at 154 I am also interested in seeing Margarito/Cotto II. But the fact that Tony wont dare to mention Williams name is getting very annoying
But first I want to see Pacman beat the living snot out of Hatton which I know he will
Pacman will beat Hatton into early retirement.

I don't think he should take the fight, but do think there is a huge market and plenty of money in the fight they market as Pacman against the last mexican threat.

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Team PACQUIAO: "We're brave... but we're not that brave... "
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Originally Posted by SaddoBoxer

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Team PACQUIAO: "We're brave... but we're not that brave... "
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maybe a little crazy,,, not a LOT crazy..

Margarito would crush Pacquiao.

No way should that fight ever happen.

Originally Posted by SaddoBoxer

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Team PACQUIAO: "We're brave... but we're not that brave... "
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lol yea. but its kinda dumb for Marg to call him out a fighter who only came upp in weight to fight oscar thats it. nobody should take anything away if he denies. if he wants to call out somebody call out the guy that beat you.

Pacman /Cotto

if margarito is willing to move south to 140 or a catchweight of 144 at the most, i think this fight could be competitive.

Originally Posted by kingfrnk

Originally Posted by SaddoBoxer

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Team PACQUIAO: "We're brave... but we're not that brave... "
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lol yea. but its kinda dumb for Marg to call him out a fighter who only came upp in weight to fight oscar thats it. nobody should take anything away if he denies. if he wants to call out somebody call out the guy that beat you.

which should be the case but he's not going to get the same amount of money as with with manny.

Originally Posted by KKisser

Originally Posted by kingfrnk

Originally Posted by SaddoBoxer

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Team PACQUIAO: "We're brave... but we're not that brave... "
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lol yea. but its kinda dumb for Marg to call him out a fighter who only came upp in weight to fight oscar thats it. nobody should take anything away if he denies. if he wants to call out somebody call out the guy that beat you.

which should be the case but he's not going to get the same amount of money as with with manny.

Not if he came down to 140 after Manny owns all those belts?

Cotto and Manny at a catch weight would be a barn stormer.

Originally Posted by Andre

Pacman /Cotto

I think Pacman stands no chance against cotto as he is a boxer puncher an pretty fast! Margarito is slow which would be Pacmans only small area to exploit.

Originally Posted by piye

Originally Posted by Andre

Pacman /Cotto

I think Pacman stands no chance against cotto as he is a boxer puncher an pretty fast! Margarito is slow which would be Pacmans only small area to exploit.

You maybe right, I dont know for sure ,Cottos tighter but that could work against him too.
Tight fighters can get caught turning by free movers and when you turn into a moving object you catch one out of your vision which can change a fight fast.
I think Pac could get around alot of Cottos style in ways others havent tried yet.
No chance, are big words to use against someone like Manny.
I have it a bit more even than that.

Originally Posted by Andre

Originally Posted by piye

Originally Posted by Andre

Pacman /Cotto

I think Pacman stands no chance against cotto as he is a boxer puncher an pretty fast! Margarito is slow which would be Pacmans only small area to exploit.

You maybe right, I dont know for sure ,Cottos tighter but that could work against him too.
Tight fighters can get caught turning by free movers and when you turn into a moving object you catch one out of your vision which can change a fight fast.
I think Pac could get around alot of Cottos style in ways others havent tried yet.
No chance, are big words to use against someone like Manny.
I have it a bit more even than that.

andre's right piye. it makes you sound like a noob. i would never count manny out especially against cotto who's already been beaten.