Pacquiao, Cotto fight done deal

Even though contracts have yet to be signed, Manny Pacquiao and Miguel Cotto have agreed in principle to face each other on Nov. 14 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

“A (disagreement over) a pound or two will not stop this fight,” Lee Samuels said yesterday as the ace Top Rank publicist was awaiting his flight to the Bay Area from Las Vegas to preside over Nonito Donaire’s public workout in the city of San Carlos, just a 15-minute drive from San Francisco.

Top Rank is confident in sealing the deal that the company’s head — Hall of Fame promoter Bob Arum — remains on vacation in Europe and won’t be reporting back to work until next week.

Pacquiao said recently that he will insist that a catchweight of 143 lbs be imposed although Cotto has publicly declared that he cannot go lower than 145 lbs. The welterweight limit is 147 lbs.

“We’ll be able to tweak things out,” said Samuels. “This is the money fight for Pacquiao and Cotto and the things that we are having right now like (stalled) negotiations is just normal.”

Before leaving for Europe for his annual sojourn, Arum handed Pacquiao adviser Mike Koncz a proposal for the Nov. 14 fight although it would only be today that the pound-for-pound king will go over the documents.

“(Pacquiao lawyer) Jeng (Gacal) and myself will go over this tomorrow (Sunday),” said Koncz, who was on the Philippine Airlines flight that landed in Manila from Los Angeles last Friday.

Arum is so upbeat of forging a deal that he has informed Team Pacquiao about the promotional tour being lined up just before Pacquiao reports for training camp under Freddie Roach at the Wild Card Boxing Club in Hollywood.

To maximize the earning potential of the bout on pay-per-view, Arum will bring the boxers on a press tour of key US cities like New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles, Cotto’s territory of San Juan in Puerto Rico and even Mexico City.