Pac-Man Winner of Paquiao vs Cotto Prize Fight
Darling of the Philippines Defeats Reigning WBO Welterweight Champ
MGM’s Grand Garden Arena was the host of the WBO Welterweight Championship fight dubbed the Fight of the Year by Boxing Talk magazine on November 12th. However, the contest quickly turned into The Manny Show as Paquiao dominated the match by knocking Cotto down in two consecutive rounds, blooding his face severely and ultimately winning 10 of the 12 rounds. 55 seconds into the 12th round referee Kenny Bayless awarded Pacquiao a Technical Knock Out and stopped the fight.
Miguel “Junito” Cotto
The reigning WBO Welterweight Champ came out strong in the first six rounds. Excellent jabs in the 4th were only over come by a late round knock down. Cotto lost that round but came back strong and won round 5. But eventually the pounding of the 3rd & 4th rounds took its toll on Junito and the outcome became inevitable.
Ironically boxing writers like Paul Magno of Fox Sports felt Cotto lost the fight long before the actual pugilistic action. Team Pacquiao managed to get into Miguel’s head and possibly cause some training and tactical errors. In his November 8th column Magno argues, “The real reason…was to get inside Cotto’s head and possibly force Cotto…The result of this head game seems to have worked to some degree.” Magno continues, “…after suffering these indignities and mind games, he has to go up against the Filipino buzz-saw, Manny Pacquiao….Miguel Cotto…lost this one before the opening bell even rings.”
Manny “Pac-Man” Pacquiao
Pacquiao is the only fighter in history to win seven titles in seven weight classes. Paul Magno of Fox and Ryan Bates of Boxing 411 agree, Manny is “…boxing’s current pound-for-pound champ” and now he is the Welterweight Champ as well.
Bob Arum, CEO of the Las Vegas-based promotion company Top Rank argued, "I will go on the record and say that…Manny Pacquiao is the best fighter I've ever seen. That includes Ali, Sugar Ray Leonard, Marvin Hagler... the best fighter I've ever seen." And Arum should know since his first boxer was Muhammad Ali in 1966.
But not only were promoters, sports writers and fans commenting on Pac-Man’s abilities, so too did Cotto. From his hospital rooms Miguel said, “Pacquiao is the best fighter [I] ever been against…I hope the fans enjoyed a great fight.”
Round by Round Results
Official scorer's table round by round results.
- Round #1 Consistent body shots gave Cotto the first round 10-8.
- Round #2 Cotto continued with the jab but Pacquiao won a close round 10-9.
- Round #3 Cotto went down and lost the round 10-8.
- Round #4 Once again Cotto went down losing a close round to Pacquiao 10-8.
- Round #5 Cotto came back strong and out scored Manny 10-9.
- Round #6 A preview of things to come with Cotto’s eye, 10-9 Pacquiao.
- Round #7 Cotto started loosing steam and lost again 10-9.
- Round #8 By now the eye was very bad and Cotto lost 10-9.
- Round #9 Cotto started going to the ropes amid consistent jabs by Manny who won 10-9.
- Round #10 Cotto face was a mess and he lost 10-9.
- Round #11 Cotto was just trying to last the round with blood pouring from his face. He lost 10-9 to Pacquiao.
- Round #12 Referee Kenny Bayless stopped the fight in the 12th.
In the post fight news conference, promoter Arum flamboyantly said, “"Manny is open to fight anybody. If Floyd Mayweather wants to fight Manny Pacquiao, he knows who to call.” Ross Greenburg president of HBO Sports is reported to have said on Saturday night by Boxing 411, "If this isn't what boxing is all about, I don't know what is….I just got off the phone with Richard Schaefer [CEO of Golden Boy Promotions & handler of Floyd Mayweather] and he said Bob Arum will be getting that call on Monday….”
What do you think about this article?
Latest Articles