LOS ANGELES --- Manny Pacquiao challenges WBO welterweight champion Miguel Cotto in one of the most highly-anticipated fights of the year on Nov. 14 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas on HBO PPV.

Cotto held an open workout on Tuesday afternoon at LB4LB Boxing Gym. Top Rank chairman Bob Arum, who is promoting the fight, was at the workout and took some time out to talk about the fight. As usual Arum had plenty of opinions and took some verbal shots at Oscar De La Hoya and MMA while pumping up Pacquiao-Cotto.

Here's what Arum had to say:

On how Pacquiao-Cotto is generating the same kind of heat as some of De La Hoya's biggest fights.

"Forget De La Hoya. This is the biggest fight since the great days of Las Vegas, of Hagler, Hearns, Leonard and Duran. This is truly a mega-fight because it's so competitive and people really don't know who is going to win this fight."

On this fight being a tossup:

"I have no idea (who is going to win) and I'm close to both of these guys and I really truly have no idea about who is going to win the fight."

On the Floyd Mayweather Jr.-Juan Manuel Marquez fight doing one million PPV buys and whether Pacquiao-Cotto can duplicate that success:

"I would hope it generates more heat because Mayweather-Marquez did tremendous numbers and it wasn't considered to be a competitive fight. This fight, everybody knows, is a competitive fight."

On where the direction of boxing is going these days:

"Boxing is on a roll. Boxing is really coming into its own again. We know from the sponsor excitement. We know that boxing is coming back and it will regain its presence as one of the top sports in the United States."

On how MMA has pushed boxing to put on better shows:

"MMA has taught us how better to promote our product. No. 2, it has taught us how better to present our product. But I think everybody realizes that MMA is garbage, not everybody but a lot of people. And in my opinion MMA has peaked and is now going down, because for me it is a sport that doesn't have real talent and it's something that I can't really abide watching. That's my opinion."

On what's going to make the difference in the Pacquiao-Cotto fight:

"I mean, Miguel is going to attack, Manny is going to attack Miguel and one of them is going to decide that's not the right strategy. If it's Miguel, he's going to become a counterpuncher because Manny has difficulty with counterpunchers. If it's Manny, then Manny is going to show how well he can box. But right now I don't know how this fight is going to develop.

"I think both of them, in their minds, have Plan A, Plan B and Plan C.

"I think that his (Cotto's) strength, that he is the bigger, stronger guy, and he has that tremendous left hook. Manny hasn't been hit by a punch like that ever."

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