Cotto versus Pacquiao Is The Pinnacle Of The Welterweight Decade

By Dewi Powell: Every once in a while a division is ripe with the highest possible world class talent. In the 1960’s it was the turn of the heavyweights and it gave to boxing its most popular boxer thus far in its history, Muhammad Ali. Other greats of the era were George Foreman, Joe Fraizer and Sonny Liston. In the 1980’s it was the middleweight division and arguably the greatest and most exciting offensive fight of all time occurred between Marvin Hagler-Thomas Hearns.

Other greats of this era were Roberto Duran and Sugar Ray Leonard. For the first half of the 2000’s no weight class established itself as the greatest, but for the second half of the decade the welterweight division has sprung to life and it is quite possibly the most exciting weight division since the great middleweights.

In the 2000’s the highest legitimate super-fights are probably Lewis-Klitschko at heavyweight and De La Hoya-Mayweather and Jr-middleweight, but tomorrow on November 14th we are brought a third super-fight of the decade from the welterweight division, Miguel Cotto-Manny Pacquiao at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas!

I know how it is to want someone to win so bad your stomach hurts and you palms sweat so much you can’t keep hold of your pint, I was feeling those feelings last Saturday. However I can’t begin to imagine what this means to people on the breadline in Puerto Rico or how big this is to stop wars in the Philippines when the fight starts, so I’m going to revel being a neutral as it will save me a load of worry.

In July 2008 Miguel Cotto suffered his first professional defeat by way of TKO against Mexican Antonio Margarito. To put it simply it was brutal. Margarito landed flush way too often and Cotto’s face at the end looked like a battlefield. Six months later Margarito took to the ring with a victim of Miguel Cotto, Sugar Shane Mosley. Once again this fight was brutal and Mosley turned to be superior leaving Margarito with his sixth defeat of his career. In terms of Cotto’s interest the most significant part of this fight didn’t occur in the ring but it occurred when Margarito was having his hands wrapped. An illegal substance was being used which is thought to have been aimed to toughen Margarito’s gloves. Margarito was found out and he and his trainer both lost their licenses which cast a cloud of confusion over the fight against Cotto and any other fight he had for that matter. There has been calls for their fight to be classed a No Decision which I thoroughly agree with, and this is why I don’t think anything from this fight can be taken into account when analysing further Cotto fights.

Other than the Margarito fight, of which Top Rank promoter Bob Arum has called a “blip in Cotto’s career”, Cotto has enjoyed a highly successful and exciting career. His trade mark punch is his devastating highly affective left hook which has helped him defeat a number of top class fighters such as Malignaggi, Quintana, Judah, Clottey and most notably, future Hall of Fame boxer, Sugar Shane Mosley. I think Cotto is so widely respected because he never ducks a fellow fighter and has pretty much always fought the best available to him and also because … a Miguel Cotto fight involves bags of excitement! His record speaks for itself. Cotto has twenty seven KO’s in thirty five bouts, twenty of his last twenty one fights have been world title fights, he has five (soon to be six) appearances at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas and six appearances at Madison Square Garden – the Mecca of boxing throughout history. His record speaks volumes for the type of top class fighter he is.

If there is one thing to be associated with Manny Pacquiao, it’s speed! It oozes out of him and Freddy Roach has manipulated it so much that it’s pretty much lethal. From his feet to his hands to his body to his head the man is sublimely quick when moving. An underrated asset of Pacquiao, in my opinion anyway, is his power. People have said it couldn’t be that hard because De La Hoya didn’t touch the canvas, but did he need to too show how devastating Pacquiao’s power is? De La Hoya’s face looked like it has been run over at the end of the fight, so Pacquiao’s punches couldn’t have just tickled the Golden Boy. Obviously when talking about Pacquiao’s power the Hatton fight has to be talked about. I’m a massive fan of Ricky but the way he fought the first round it was clear it was going to be a tragic end; nonetheless I was totally shocked when Pacquiao hit Ricky unconscious. Criticize Ricky all you want but his toughness can never be doubted, this was a massive feat of Pacquiao and I think his power is still being underestimated. Also, I’ll agree with anyone who says that Hatton and De La Hoya weren’t prepared for their fights with Pacquiao but I’ve got no doubt either that the way in which Pacquiao dismissed them was nothing short of phenomenal and nobody could have done a better job than he did on those two nights.

Apart from his remarkable speed I think Pacquiao should be remembered for the weight jumps. I can’t recall any boxer doing this successfully in such a rapid way than Pacquiao has done. His 6 world titles in as many division can’t ever be questioned because he’s always fought the top dogs of the division to get these titles and come out victorious (questionable for the Marquez fights though).

Speed kills or power prevails? I don’t think the question will be answered by who imposes their respective advantage more, it will be answered by who adapts more. Power can be answered by not staying in range long enough to let a power shot be worked up so it will be important for Pacquiao to throw his punches at short range and then get out and repeat the process. With Pacquiao being in close when he throws it will be harder for Cotto to use his trademark left hook effectively as it will be thrown closer to the elbow and less power will be generated. Speed can be managed by accuracy and composure, obviously you could cut the ring out but with Pacquiao’s speed its better to not attempt this as it will waste energy and just when you have the chance to land, land! Obviously this is easier said than done, what isn’t? But Cotto has to use this when Pacquiao throws his first left hand because the right comes lower than it should do for a fighter of his skills and then Cotto can use the left hook and as Pacquiao should be on the front foot at this point it will be easier to land.

HBO’s four part series 24/7 has become an integral part of the build up to the fight. There are the obvious questions like; How much of the vents are for the camera? How much can these events be read into? But after seeing the first three episodes I think that this has been the most revealing series yet. Much of Pacquiao’s training camp has been less than what Freddy Roach would have initially expected. The Philippine Typhoons caused not just major damage to Pacquiao’s preparation but hundreds of thousands of people’s lives, draw your own opinion but I have no doubt that this would have took Pacquiao’s focus off his training, obviously understandable of course. Also the verbal and physical conflict in the camp would never have had a positive effect on preparation. I wasn’t surprised about the fight between Pacquiao’s strength coach and an advisor as the more successful he becomes he will be around more people who all think what they know is right, common in a successful boxers career. I was totally surprised with Roach-Pacquiao’s disagreements, from everything I’ve seen before they have had a father-son relationship but this relationship seemed extremely strained on the 24/7 series. There was a blatant tear between Pacquiao’s connections and obligations to his people and Roach’s professionalism in wanting to do what is best for training. This was evident by the contrast in moods in the training in the Philippines to the training in L.A. Miguel Cotto seems to have had a more or less perfect camp. From watching previous video’s of Cotto leading up to a fight he has always seemed too focused and slight unhappy/grumpy, but surrounded by his friends and family in a beautiful peaceful setting he seems a lot happier and more relaxed, this can only be beneficial for his confidence which critics have focused their attention on in recent fights. I’m sure this is due to the change in trainer which also brings up issues to discuss regarding the fight. There’s talk that the new trainer isn’t experienced enough to prepare Cotto I would agree with this if the trainer was an outsider to Cotto’s life and not someone who has been with Cotto throughout his entire life. This has been highlighted by Freddy Roach but I think, as happened with Mayweather Snr, Roach doesn’t argue with trainers to put them off their game but to take pressure off Pacquiao. Manny Pacquiao already has enough pressure on him with a whole country at his feet so Roach has for a while been attempting to take much of the media’s attention off Manny.

Both men have tasted defeats in their pasts, mainly due to the fact they will fight anyone and will never hide from a challenge. Both men have slight faults in their game, they are human after all. However, there is no doubt that these men are the current pinnacle of world boxing. They are skilled to the core with a nations pride running through their veins. You may accuse me of sitting on the fence but I can’t pick between Cotto and Pacquiao, neither can I predict a draw. All I can predict is that both men will touch the canvas and the fight will be decided by a knockout.

After all the talking is done, three men will be stood in the ring, two of which will want to take the other guys head off. One man has been proved adaptable to almost every style in the game and the other has recently been as good as anyone ever in the sport of imposing his own style. The desire of these two men can never be questioned. Both came from less than privileged backgrounds yet both have managed to be adored by their nations and many boxing fans worldwide, one word tells us how they have achieved this, desire. These two warriors will showcase to the boxing world that the welterweight division is the best of the 2000’s and in what is the last super-fight of the decade I predict it to be the most fascinating too. The only thing for sure about this fight is that, as always, all answers will be given in the ring come tomorrow night.

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