Pacquiao vs Cotto Full Fight Video HBO Boxing
Pacquiao stops Cotto to win 7th title
By TIM DAHLBERG, AP Boxing Writer Nov 15, 1:55 am EST
LAS VEGAS (AP)—Manny Pacquiao’s speed and power were way too much for Miguel Cotto’s heart.
Pacquiao put on yet another dominating performance Saturday night, knocking down Cotto twice and turning his face into a bloody mess before finally stopping him at 55 seconds of the 12th round.
The Filipino star used his blazing speed and power from both hands to win his seventh title in seven weight classes and cement his stature as the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world. Cotto took such a beating that his face was a river of red from the fury of Pacquiao’s punches, but he refused to quit even as his corner tried to throw in the towel after the 11th round.
“I didn’t know from where the punches were coming,” Cotto said.
The fight was billed as a 145-pound classic, and in the early rounds it didn’t disappoint. The two went after each other with a vengeance and Cotto more than held his own as they traded punches in the center of the ring before a roaring sellout crowd at the MGM Grand arena.
Pacquiao dropped Cotto with a right hand early in the third round, but he wasn’t badly hurt and came back to finish the round strong. But after Pacquiao put Cotto on the canvas with a big left hand late in the fourth round, the Puerto Rican was never the same again.
Cotto won two rounds on the scorecards of two ringside judges and just one round on the card of the third. The Associated Press gave Cotto just the first round.
“Our plan was not to hurry, but to take our time,” Pacquiao said. “It was a hard fight tonight and I needed time to test his power.”
Cotto’s face was marked early and he was bleeding midway through the fight as Pacquiao kept bouncing around and throwing punches in his unorthodox southpaw style. He tried to keep taking the fight to Pacquiao, but by then his punches had lost their sting and his only real chance was to land a big punch from nowhere.
“He hit harder than we expected and he was a lot stronger than we expected,” Cotto’s trainer, Joe Santiago, said.
Cotto fought gamely, but in the later rounds he was just trying to survive as blood flowed down his face and Pacquiao came after him relentlessly. Santiago tried to stop the fight after the 11th round, but Cotto went back out to take even more punishment before a final flurry along the ropes prompted referee Kenny Bayless to end it.
Cotto’s wife and child, who were at ringside, left after the ninth round, unable to watch the beating any longer. They later accompanied him to a local hospital for a post-fight examination.
“My health comes first. I just want to make sure I’m fine, but I feel great. I’m swollen but that’s all,” Cotto said.
His face swollen, Cotto was bleeding from his nose and his cuts, and he simply couldn’t stop Pacquiao from bouncing inside and throwing both hands at will.
“Manny Pacquiao is one of the best boxers I ever fought,” Cotto said.
Pacquiao, coming off of spectacular wins over Oscar De La Hoya and Ricky Hatton, added another one against Cotto, who had lost only once and held the WBO version of the welterweight title.
Pacquiao did it in his trademark way, throwing punches in flurries and from all angles until Cotto began to slow down. Then he pursued him nonstop until the end.
The fight likely will set up an even bigger one against Floyd Mayweather Jr., and many in crowd were already chanting, “We want Floyd! We want Floyd.”
“I want to see him fight Mayweather,” trainer Freddie Roach said.
Mayweather may have second thoughts after Pacquiao did what no fighter has done before—win a belt in a seventh weight class. More impressive, though, is how he has fought, dismantling opponents despite moving up consistently from 106 pounds to the 144 he weighed for the fight.
The welterweight ranks will be the last ones Pacquiao conquers, though.
“This is the last weight division for me,” Pacquiao said. “It’s history for me and more importantly a Filipino did it.”
He was so dominant in the later rounds that Cotto was fighting backward most of the way, simply trying to survive. Pacquiao was credited with landing almost twice as many punches—336-172—as Cotto.
“I knew when Cotto started backing up, the fight was over,” Roach said.
Pacquiao earned a minimum $13 million, while Cotto got $7 million.
Pacquiao was favored, largely off his last two performances in which he forced De La Hoya to quit on his stool and then knocked out Hatton with a huge left hook in the second round. Some in boxing, including Roach, thought Cotto had been slowed by his devastating loss last year to Antonio Margarito and would be further slowed by having to come in 2 pounds lower than his normal weight.
That wasn’t the case early in the fight, with Cotto winning the first round and fighting well. Once he was knocked down by a big left hand late in the fourth round, though, he slowed noticeably.
Time to rate Pacquiao among all-time greats
By Martin Rogers, Yahoo! Sports Nov 15, 3:55 am EST
LAS VEGAS – Bob Arum is 78 years old, but as Saturday night became Sunday morning and the famous Strip geared up for another dose of party time, boxing’s omnipresent promoter was as hyperbolic as ever.
Arum loves this brutal yet entrancing game, loves the spin and the hype and the eternal battle of verbal chicanery needed to sell the virtues of fights and fighters.
But as the Top Rank chief cranked into high gear to extol the merits of his shining light, Manny Pacquiao, for once his spiel was met with nods of agreement from even the sagest of boxing experts.
Pacquiao’s 12th-round TKO of Miguel Cotto at the MGM Grand Garden Arena was mightily impressive on paper but even more so in actuality, a punishing and blistering assault that was electrifying to witness.
That’s why Arum found plenty of takers when he floated the theory that his boxer is the greatest of this era, even without the clarifying factor of a bout with Floyd Mayweather Jr., which boxing prays will take place in 2010.
It’s been a while since current fighters were talked about in historical terms, but that’s the level to which Pacquiao is taking his performances, a reality to which Cotto’s mangled face bore testament.
“I think he is the greatest fighter I have seen,” said Arum. “Certainly the greatest of this era. There was a time in this country when boxing was mainstream, it really mattered, and Manny is helping to bring that back.”
The fight game is still a long way removed from the days of big contests on network television and a cemented place in the public consciousness, but Pacquiao’s abilities certainly bridge generational gaps.
Boxing historian Bert Sugar, author of “Boxing’s Greatest Fighters,” believes the Filipino sensation is now among the top 20 fighters who have ever lived.
“This performance puts him up there,” Sugar said. “The key with Pacquiao is the way he has retained his power while he climbs up the weights.
“A lot of people thought that Cotto’s own punching power – a natural welterweight – would be too much for him. Instead, Pacquiao put himself in Cotto’s wheelhouse and took his shots.”
Pacquiao has now won officially sanctioned belts in five divisions and has been regarded as a champion in seven, a remarkable feat that has confounded the critics at virtually every step.
The welterweight limit of 147 pounds is as high as he will go, but there is still more he can do to cement his legacy, starting with a showdown with Mayweather.
“Don’t be afraid to put this guy up there with the greats,” said trainer Freddie Roach. “What he is doing just doesn’t happen these days and boxing is lucky to have him.
“It might even be that it won’t be until after his career that Manny is truly appreciated. People know what he is doing, moving up the weights with so much success, but we won’t see it happen again. Only then will people truly appreciate it.”
One of the more popular comparisons emerging is Pacquiao and Henry Armstrong, the legendary fighter of the 1930s and 1940s. Armstrong fought across six divisions and maintained his ferocious power at every level.
Such likenesses are mired in conjecture – Armstrong fought more than 150 times, often taking the ring up to 15 times per year. Compared to Armstrong, current evaluations of Pacquiao are based on limited information.
“It is not for me to say where I am in the history of boxing,” said Pacquiao. “I just try to win my fights and represent my country. I don’t think too much about these things.”
Well, that won’t stop the rest of the boxing world from thinking about it. The topic of Pac-Man’s spot in history will keep the sport’s fans chattering away.
