By David P. Greisman and Thomas Gerbasi

DAVID P. GREISMAN: Is there a fight this weekend?

THOMAS GERBASI: If you mean Andy Lee vs Affif Belghecham, then absolutely. Oh, you mean Miguel Cotto vs. Manny Pacquiao. Yeah, that should be a pretty good scrap too.

All kidding aside, though, Cotto vs. Pacquiao is one of those great, can’t miss bouts, and I’m really hoping that it delivers with the type of action that will make it hit the record books with the fights that first got me into the game in the ‘80s – bouts like Leonard-Hearns, Leonard-Duran, Leonard-Benitez (okay, that was 1979, but you get the point) and Hagler-Hearns.

Do you notice a theme here?

Maybe it’s that those fights involved guys like Sugar Ray Leonard, Marvin Hagler, Roberto Duran, Wilfred Benitez, and Tommy Hearns – all superstars, all willing to put it all on the line in bouts against each other. Pacquiao and Cotto are laying the groundwork for a similar series if you want to toss Shane Mosley and Floyd Mayweather into the mix.

All it’s gonna take is for everybody to step up and lay it all on the line. Mention the fab five that kicked off this paragraph to me, and I don’t think of wins and losses – I think of great fights and talented athletes who were true warriors because they risked it all against the best of their era. Pacquiao and Cotto are doing the same, and I hope it starts a trend. Who cares if you lose if you’re fighting the best?

Okay, rant over – on to the fight, and back to the theme of this being can’t miss in terms of compelling action. That all comes down to the styles of both guys. It doesn’t matter that they have the talent to box if they need to. The fact remains that for these two, nothing beats a knockout, and when you’re that offensive minded, all the game-planning goes out the window once the first blow is landed.

That’s legendary stuff in the making right there, but will this fight be a question of who lands first? I don’t think so, mainly because Cotto is a punishing volume puncher, and Pacquiao is one of those ‘shock’ punchers. He’ll drill you with his straight left and shock your system. A few of those and you’re done, or maybe he shocks you and the clean-up hook puts you on your back. So this fight may come down to shock and ‘awww’ as in ‘awww, that hurt, please don’t hit me with five more.’

And in a battle of punchers, Pacquiao has to get the edge, simply because of his speed and the way Cotto has been susceptible to left hands down the middle. Yeah, yeah, I know Cotto has had victories over speedsters like Mosley and Zab Judah, but the Mosley fight was a 12-round war that could have gone the other way on the scorecards, and Judah was landing his left almost at will and jarring Cotto in their bout before some well-placed low blows gave the Boricua bomber some time to recover and to slow Judah down.

If Pacquiao can land those same left hands – which have even more speed and zip on them – he can not only beat Cotto, but he can stop him.

As for those who think Cotto will outbox Pacquiao based on his early round boxing clinic against Antonio Margarito and his late-round replay against Joshua Clottey, let’s just say that neither Margarito nor Clottey will ever be confused with being fleet of foot. Pacquiao is too fast to fall for that. If anyone will be boxing on Saturday night, it will be Pacquiao who may very well be the smaller man when the opening bell rings.

That will be where Cotto’s best chance to win lies. He’s stronger, he’s great at cutting off the ring, and if he can get a steady body attack going, he has a shot at wearing Pacquiao down and getting to him late. That’s a big if though, and it all depends on Cotto’s ability to withstand that shocking left hand over and over on the way in. If the left hand of Pacquiao is removed as a factor from the fight, it’s a whole new ball game, and then it becomes Cotto’s fight to lose.

Okay, so I’ve been walking the fence so far, trying to break down how each guy could win the fight, but with the crystal ball warmed up after the wins by Haye and Dawson last week, I guess I’ve got to make a call.

Well, I’m going to have to go with Pacquiao by late stoppage. I just see those left hands landing over and over and making a mess of Cotto before the referee or his corner steps in. What’s your call, David? Am I crazy with Pac-Man Fever, or is Cotto going to pull this one off, thus prompting my wife to talk to me again after I just picked against her fellow Boricua?

DAVID P. GREISMAN: You don’t have to be Boricua to favor Cotto, Tom. And your Mrs. Gerbasi could have good reason to celebrate  tonight, and not just because her husband was able to get Affif Belghecham into an article.

Tom, there have been several prospects over the years that HBO has featured. Some have become contenders. A few have become world titlists. But the only one who’s still holding strong is Miguel Cotto.

He’s overcome getting hurt by DeMarcus Corley, overcome getting dropped by Ricardo Torres, overcome the fast hands of Paulie Malignaggi, overcome the speed and power of both Zab Judah and Shane Mosley, and overcome the top-notch opposition of Joshua Clottey.

Cotto’s only loss, of course, came at the hands of Antonio Margarito. There was no need to demean Cotto for that anyway. Now that people believe that Margarito may have used tampered hand wraps in other fights pre-Mosley, there’s even less need to hold that loss against Cotto now.

Cotto, quite simply, is a world-class welterweight. He’s dealt with speed and skills and has found a way to beat both. I even recall him being faster, at times, than Mosley.

Manny Pacquiao has never been hit by a world-class welterweight. A lot of that has to do with the way his style has evolved. No longer is he the come-forward, two jabs and then a straight left bruiser. He’s no longer limited to the brawler he was against Erik Morales, back when a right hook termed “Manila Ice” was just making its way into the Pac-Man’s arsenal.

Pacquiao is now a boxer-puncher, complete with head, body and foot movement. It is how he stepped up to lightweight to beat David Diaz. It is how he jumped up to welterweight and embarrassed Oscar De La Hoya. And it is how he went to junior welterweight and destroyed Ricky Hatton.

I don’t remember Pacquiao being in trouble at any point in those three bouts. Heck, the only dent Hatton made was when his head hit the canvas.

The question is whether Cotto can catch Pacquiao. You bring up the phrase “fleet of foot” for good reason. As we’ve seen with these Pacquiao bouts, as we’ve seen with Floyd Mayweather Jr. against Juan Manuel Marquez, with Vitali Klitschko against Chris Arreola, and with Chad Dawson against Antonio Tarver, good foot movement can simultaneously take away your opponent’s offense and enhance your own.

One can argue that Pacquiao’s never faced anyone with both the combined size and skills of Cotto. It is why I will vehemently disagree with the revisionist historians who, should Pacquiao win, will claim that Cotto never belonged in the ring with the Filipino Firebomber.

I’ve called this a pick’em fight for some time, and I won’t diminish the logic of those who feel Cotto will win, those who feel he will swat off the smaller man’s shots, pressure him around the ring and wear him down with hard punches.

I just can’t pick Cotto to win.

I’ve pictured fight scenarios in my head over and over. And though Pacquiao hasn’t faced a Cotto before, Cotto, for all of his wins over Clottey, Judah, Mosley, Malignaggi, Torres and Corley, has never faced a Pacquiao.

Pacquiao is a transcendent talent, and it seems like fate that he should defeat Cotto and raise his place in history to an even higher level than it already is.

I see him out-boxing Cotto. Pacquiao’s foot speed and hand speed are too much, and the punches that hurt most are the ones you don’t see coming. I see Pacquiao using movement to land hard single shots, later following with combinations, and working his way either to a decision or a late stoppage.

Where does Pacquiao go after that? Don’t know. Probably not to Affif Belghecham.