Tweet
Every once in a while there comes a fight that has fans counting the days till it happens. Manny Pacquiao against Miguel Cotto is such a fight. The Firepower PPV title fight at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas has all the ingredients to make it the year’s most compelling contest.
Pacquiao is the favourite and the odds have been climbing in the last few days as money pours in on the Filipino phenomenon. Yet Cotto has his backers in the fight fraternity. This is not going to be a Pacquiao blowout on the lines of his two-round demolition of Ricky Hatton in this ring last May. Cotto is a poised and purposeful practitioner who comes into the fight as the defending WBO welter champion (although the match is made at a catchweight of 145 pounds) and a winner’s mentality.
I was able to catch a few words over the phone with both fighters in the last week. Neither disparages the other — which I like — but I sense real confidence on both sides.
“Whatever Pacquiao brings, whatever he does, I will be ready for it,” Cotto said. “I am very sure I will win.”
Pacquiao said he feels even better physically that he did before the big fights with Oscar De La Hoya and Hatton. “I feel stronger, and just as fast,” Pacquiao said.
Concerns have been voiced that the brutal, 11th-round defeat against Antonio Margarito 16 months ago left Cotto depleted as a fighter. “If I was not fully recovered I would not be here, in this fight,” Cotto said in his usual serious way.
Did he feel that Margarito fought with illegal substances in his hand wraps that night? “You know, I didn’t feel anything weird,” he said, “but people saw how my face looked after the fight and I will let boxing followers around the world be the judge.”
Cotto didn’t seem quite his usual self in his last fight, against Joshua Clottey, but he still got the win, and he was boxing the last nine rounds under the handicap of a bad cut over the left eye against a big, strong, durable fighter who, with his stonewall defence, is extremely hard to hurt.
I had the sense that Clottey had Cotto on the brink of defeat, but he didn’t press his attack with sufficient vigour to push him over the edge. It was Cotto who was the busier fighter in the last few rounds to take a split but deserved decision. Still, even allowing for the cut eye, and the difficulties that Clottey presented, it did appear to me that there was something missing in Cotto that night.
Pacquiao, in contrast, has been looking sensational as he has moved up in weight. First he destroyed De La Hoya in eight one-sided rounds, then he left Hatton stretched out on the canvas in one of the most alarming knockouts in recent years.
Cotto, though, isn’t a weight-drained De La Hoya or a wide-open Hatton. The Puerto Rican boxer is smart, skilled and extremely dangerous with his cannonball left hooks. If he catches Pacquiao, he will hurt him, and if he can hurt him often enough, he will win. I make Cotto the puncher in the fight, if you’re talking about one-hit power. Pacquiao, though, has the lightning-bolt type of punches that can bring dramatic results because the other man just doesn’t see the shots. He has become a two-handed fighter, too. Once he would rely on big left hands from his southpaw stance. Now he jabs and hooks with real authority with his right. “My right hand is now as good as my left,” Pacquaio told me.
Pacquiao’s trainer, Freddie Roach, naturally enough predicts an emphatic win for his man — and he’s been getting it right lately. There has been speculation that Pacquiao’s preparation might have been disrupted by stormy weather in the Philippines, but Roach said: “The typhoons did a lot of damage around us but we never missed one day of training. We ran every day, we didn’t melt in the rain — we didn’t miss a step. One thing about Manny, when he gets in the gym he separates everything else and the gym is where his mind’s at. He’s been looking really sharp and he’s 100% ready.
“Cotto has a really good left hook, he’s left handed and leads with his power hand, and he’s most effective when he gets you on the ropes — our job is to stay away from the left hook and not get caught on the ropes. We can do that just like we did with Oscar, it’s very similar to Oscar’s style because they both lead with their power hands.”
Roach feels that on Saturday the world will see the best Pacquiao yet. “He’s punching harder with both hands than I’ve ever seen him,” Roach said. “He’s filling out, his upper body’s a little bigger — he’s on fire. I’ve studied Cotto’s tapes, he’s a very good fighter, but the Margarito fight definitely took something out of him. He took a beating in that fight. I definitely feel we’ll stop him somewhere along the way.”
Many will agree with Roach’s assessment, but there is always the risk that observers can get carried away when a fighter has scored successive wins of a spectacular nature. It was only 20 months ago, after all, that Pacquiao had a desperate struggle with Juan Manuel Marquez that he may have been lucky to win. Yet it is almost as if we are looking at a different fighter now. Pacquiao looks rock-solid in the mid-140-pound weight range and, as he says, his speed is undiminished.
I think that Pacquiao’s speed and vitality are going to be the key factors in Saturday’s eagerly anticipated fight. Cotto, to me, is like a machine in the ring, and a superb one at that, but Pacquiao is the sort of fighter who can throw a machine out of sync.
Of course, Cotto has the power to swing the fight his way if he can get Pacquiao in his sights and pull the trigger on the left hook. Cotto’s jab could be a key weapon — Juan Manuel Marquez had considerable success with stiff jabbing in his two fights with Pacquiao.
There is a risk that many are overrating Pacquiao and underrating Cotto based on the evidence of recent form.
Still, I like Pacquiao’s chances on Saturday.
Although Cotto is the naturally bigger man, his strength and power will not help him if he cannot corner Pacquiao and cut off his escape routes. I can see Pacquiao darting in and out, hitting and getting away in sweeping motions, and I think that his rapid-fire punching can gradually take effect.
I’m picking Pacquiao, and I think he can stop Cotto somewhere around the 10th or 11th round.
- By Fightwriter.
Pacquiao is the favourite and the odds have been climbing in the last few days as money pours in on the Filipino phenomenon. Yet Cotto has his backers in the fight fraternity. This is not going to be a Pacquiao blowout on the lines of his two-round demolition of Ricky Hatton in this ring last May. Cotto is a poised and purposeful practitioner who comes into the fight as the defending WBO welter champion (although the match is made at a catchweight of 145 pounds) and a winner’s mentality.
I was able to catch a few words over the phone with both fighters in the last week. Neither disparages the other — which I like — but I sense real confidence on both sides.
“Whatever Pacquiao brings, whatever he does, I will be ready for it,” Cotto said. “I am very sure I will win.”
Pacquiao said he feels even better physically that he did before the big fights with Oscar De La Hoya and Hatton. “I feel stronger, and just as fast,” Pacquiao said.
Concerns have been voiced that the brutal, 11th-round defeat against Antonio Margarito 16 months ago left Cotto depleted as a fighter. “If I was not fully recovered I would not be here, in this fight,” Cotto said in his usual serious way.
Did he feel that Margarito fought with illegal substances in his hand wraps that night? “You know, I didn’t feel anything weird,” he said, “but people saw how my face looked after the fight and I will let boxing followers around the world be the judge.”
Cotto didn’t seem quite his usual self in his last fight, against Joshua Clottey, but he still got the win, and he was boxing the last nine rounds under the handicap of a bad cut over the left eye against a big, strong, durable fighter who, with his stonewall defence, is extremely hard to hurt.
I had the sense that Clottey had Cotto on the brink of defeat, but he didn’t press his attack with sufficient vigour to push him over the edge. It was Cotto who was the busier fighter in the last few rounds to take a split but deserved decision. Still, even allowing for the cut eye, and the difficulties that Clottey presented, it did appear to me that there was something missing in Cotto that night.
Pacquiao, in contrast, has been looking sensational as he has moved up in weight. First he destroyed De La Hoya in eight one-sided rounds, then he left Hatton stretched out on the canvas in one of the most alarming knockouts in recent years.
Cotto, though, isn’t a weight-drained De La Hoya or a wide-open Hatton. The Puerto Rican boxer is smart, skilled and extremely dangerous with his cannonball left hooks. If he catches Pacquiao, he will hurt him, and if he can hurt him often enough, he will win. I make Cotto the puncher in the fight, if you’re talking about one-hit power. Pacquiao, though, has the lightning-bolt type of punches that can bring dramatic results because the other man just doesn’t see the shots. He has become a two-handed fighter, too. Once he would rely on big left hands from his southpaw stance. Now he jabs and hooks with real authority with his right. “My right hand is now as good as my left,” Pacquaio told me.
Pacquiao’s trainer, Freddie Roach, naturally enough predicts an emphatic win for his man — and he’s been getting it right lately. There has been speculation that Pacquiao’s preparation might have been disrupted by stormy weather in the Philippines, but Roach said: “The typhoons did a lot of damage around us but we never missed one day of training. We ran every day, we didn’t melt in the rain — we didn’t miss a step. One thing about Manny, when he gets in the gym he separates everything else and the gym is where his mind’s at. He’s been looking really sharp and he’s 100% ready.
“Cotto has a really good left hook, he’s left handed and leads with his power hand, and he’s most effective when he gets you on the ropes — our job is to stay away from the left hook and not get caught on the ropes. We can do that just like we did with Oscar, it’s very similar to Oscar’s style because they both lead with their power hands.”
Roach feels that on Saturday the world will see the best Pacquiao yet. “He’s punching harder with both hands than I’ve ever seen him,” Roach said. “He’s filling out, his upper body’s a little bigger — he’s on fire. I’ve studied Cotto’s tapes, he’s a very good fighter, but the Margarito fight definitely took something out of him. He took a beating in that fight. I definitely feel we’ll stop him somewhere along the way.”
Many will agree with Roach’s assessment, but there is always the risk that observers can get carried away when a fighter has scored successive wins of a spectacular nature. It was only 20 months ago, after all, that Pacquiao had a desperate struggle with Juan Manuel Marquez that he may have been lucky to win. Yet it is almost as if we are looking at a different fighter now. Pacquiao looks rock-solid in the mid-140-pound weight range and, as he says, his speed is undiminished.
I think that Pacquiao’s speed and vitality are going to be the key factors in Saturday’s eagerly anticipated fight. Cotto, to me, is like a machine in the ring, and a superb one at that, but Pacquiao is the sort of fighter who can throw a machine out of sync.
Of course, Cotto has the power to swing the fight his way if he can get Pacquiao in his sights and pull the trigger on the left hook. Cotto’s jab could be a key weapon — Juan Manuel Marquez had considerable success with stiff jabbing in his two fights with Pacquiao.
There is a risk that many are overrating Pacquiao and underrating Cotto based on the evidence of recent form.
Still, I like Pacquiao’s chances on Saturday.
Although Cotto is the naturally bigger man, his strength and power will not help him if he cannot corner Pacquiao and cut off his escape routes. I can see Pacquiao darting in and out, hitting and getting away in sweeping motions, and I think that his rapid-fire punching can gradually take effect.
I’m picking Pacquiao, and I think he can stop Cotto somewhere around the 10th or 11th round.
- By Fightwriter.
Comment