Bob Arum Says Ortiz Not Ready for Mayweather, and Chavez Jr Not Ready for Cotto

Top Rank CEO Bob Arum told Boxing Scene that he is delaying the fight between 25-year-old Julio Cesar Chavez Jr (43-0-1, 30 KO's) and 30-year-old MIguel Cotto (36-2, 29 KO's) until next year.

Arum had this to say:

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"Cotto is not going to fight Julio Cesar Chavez Jr this year, because, again Chavez is not ready. Chavez is going to need more developmental fights before he can get into the ring with somebody like Miguel Cotto."

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Cotto vs Chavez was originally scheduled for last December, but Cotto was replaced with a cycle of other opponents before Chavez dropped from the fight card with the flu.

He recovered this year to win his first world title at middleweight (160 lbs), one weight division above where Cotto fights (154).

If and when Cotto fights Chavez, the idea will be for Cotto to move up to 160 and contest for a world title in a fourth weight division, something no other Puerto Rican has ever done.

Arum also said that another fighter wasn't ready for elite opposition. Here's what he said to Boxing Scene:

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"I wouldn't have wasted or thrown a young guy like Ortiz into this match against Mayweather at this particular point in his career. I just wouldn't do it because there is no way that Victor Ortiz is ready to fight somebody like Floyd Mayweather. There just isn't.

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Arum also stated in the interview that he thinks 24-year-old Victor Ortiz (29-2-2, 22 KO's) should be making title defenses of his newly won WBC welterweight (147 lbs) world championship against lesser competition, not someone on the level of Mayweather (41-0, 25 KO's).

The only thing that can be said is that world champions fight great fighters, even at young ages.

Manny Pacquiao (53-3-2, 38 KO's) beat Mexican legend Marco Antonio Barrera (67-7, 44 KO's) at 24.

Sure Pacquiao did lose to another Mexican legend Erik Morales (51-7, 35 KO's) two years later at 26, but if you asked Pacquiao, he learned more in losing to Morales than he did winning other fights.

At 27, Pacquiao faced Morales two more times, ending the fight in the Round 10, and then impressively in Round 3, both by vengeful knockout.

Pacquiao had 44 fights under his belt, the same amount Chavez Jr has now (not counting Chavez's one no-contest), when he faced Morales.

If Chavez Jr wants to become a legend on a level anywhere close to his father, he must fight the best.

If not now, when?