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November 12, 2:04PM SF Boxing Examiner Colin Seymour
Miguel Cotto is perfectly capable of outpointing Manny Pacquiao on Saturday, maybe even stopping him. But it’s not going to happen.
Pacquiao will win two-thirds of the rounds and will stop Cotto (34-1, 27 knockouts) on cuts and bruises in the late rounds, say the 10th, in their battle for the WBO welterweight belt in Las Vegas on HBO pay-per-view.
Pacquiao’s superior speed makes him the slugger and the likely aggressor in this fight. He will land the big lefts, early and often.
Cotto’s best bet is to tame the beast, stick and move and counterpunch. He’s an excellent defender who may frustrate Pacquiao in many ways we haven’t seen lately, and he’ll hit Manny, too, as he hit Shane Mosley. But Cotto is not a one-punch knockout artist.
Pacquiao (49-3-2, 37 knockouts), has more going for him. It’s not just that Pacquiao is the better man. It’s more that he has mo’ better men behind him.
Aside from the persistent misperception that 145 pounds is more than Pacquiao should weigh, the biggest myth in the buildup to this fight is that Pacquiao’s sizeable entourage has hindered his training, when in fact it’s a pretty smooth operation.
It’s the Cotto camp that has the big problem, the loss of trainer Evangelista Cotto just when Miguel needs every asset at his command.
This wasn’t the boy becoming a man, like Nonito Donaire’s flap with his father. This was Cotto and his uncle literally fighting, last April 9. Bad, bad blood. So Evangelista is no longer Miguel’s trainer, and young, little-accomplished Joe Santiago has taken over.
Cotto did squeak past Joshua Clottey in June. Santiago may be a more than competent trainer. But when you hear Freddie Roach talking about having studied Cotto’s habits and boasting he has devised a stratagem for Pacquiao to exploit what’s he’s found, you can’t think Cotto and Pacquiao are getting equal benefit from their trainers. After all, Roach said he’d exploit Oscar De La Hoya’s weaknesses, and Pacquiao backed it up.
Cotto is probably in charge of his corner, and that makes it relatively forlorn. If Cotto is drowning in a sea of punches, as he ultimately was against Antonio Margarito in his lone and tainted defeat, who’s gonna save him?
Miguel Cotto is perfectly capable of outpointing Manny Pacquiao on Saturday, maybe even stopping him. But it’s not going to happen.
Pacquiao will win two-thirds of the rounds and will stop Cotto (34-1, 27 knockouts) on cuts and bruises in the late rounds, say the 10th, in their battle for the WBO welterweight belt in Las Vegas on HBO pay-per-view.
Pacquiao’s superior speed makes him the slugger and the likely aggressor in this fight. He will land the big lefts, early and often.
Cotto’s best bet is to tame the beast, stick and move and counterpunch. He’s an excellent defender who may frustrate Pacquiao in many ways we haven’t seen lately, and he’ll hit Manny, too, as he hit Shane Mosley. But Cotto is not a one-punch knockout artist.
Pacquiao (49-3-2, 37 knockouts), has more going for him. It’s not just that Pacquiao is the better man. It’s more that he has mo’ better men behind him.
Aside from the persistent misperception that 145 pounds is more than Pacquiao should weigh, the biggest myth in the buildup to this fight is that Pacquiao’s sizeable entourage has hindered his training, when in fact it’s a pretty smooth operation.
It’s the Cotto camp that has the big problem, the loss of trainer Evangelista Cotto just when Miguel needs every asset at his command.
This wasn’t the boy becoming a man, like Nonito Donaire’s flap with his father. This was Cotto and his uncle literally fighting, last April 9. Bad, bad blood. So Evangelista is no longer Miguel’s trainer, and young, little-accomplished Joe Santiago has taken over.
Cotto did squeak past Joshua Clottey in June. Santiago may be a more than competent trainer. But when you hear Freddie Roach talking about having studied Cotto’s habits and boasting he has devised a stratagem for Pacquiao to exploit what’s he’s found, you can’t think Cotto and Pacquiao are getting equal benefit from their trainers. After all, Roach said he’d exploit Oscar De La Hoya’s weaknesses, and Pacquiao backed it up.
Cotto is probably in charge of his corner, and that makes it relatively forlorn. If Cotto is drowning in a sea of punches, as he ultimately was against Antonio Margarito in his lone and tainted defeat, who’s gonna save him?