By Sam Singh: There’s no doubt Filipino sensation Manny Pacquiao is a great fighter, but he is being seriously overrated from his wins over Oscar De La Hoya & Ricky Hatton. Somehow, I don’t think Stevie Forbes would’ve been as hyped up as Pacquiao if he had beaten De La Hoya in their fight.

Even though I expected Oscar to KO Manny, you can’t ignore the fact that the last time Oscar fought at 147lbs was in 2001 against the late Arturo Gatti. Making the weight at the end of his career clearly diminished him and I had no idea that he would enter the ring at a dead weight.

The same goes for the win over Hatton. I give Pacquiao credit for the win but I always saw Hatton there for the taking. Apart from beating a faded Tszyu who never fought again, Hatton had a major scare at 147lbs & was on the verge of being taken out by a feather-fisted fighter in Collazo. Likewise, Mayweather who isn’t a noted puncher, also knocked Hatton out – badly. Not to mention the fact that Juan Lazcano had Ricky Hatton hurt.

Don’t get me wrong, I think Pacquiao is a great boxer and I rate him highly. But he’s there to be out-boxed and I feel Juan Manuel out-boxed him in both of their fights.

Cotto, on the other hand, is a guy who has been in with the top 147 pounders in Mosley, Margarito, Clottey, Quintana & Judah. And none of those guys were able to really hurt Cotto. With the exception of confirmed-cheater Margarito, Cotto was able to beat much bigger, stronger guys.

Look at the Mosley fight. Shane Mosley is a bigger and stronger version of Manny Pacquiao. The only difference is that Pacquiao is a southpaw who can box more on his feet. But Mosley was still unable to hurt Cotto. So I can’t see why so many feel Pacquiao will stop or KO Cotto.

Sure, Cotto looked vulnerable in his last fight but he had a very serious cut for 9 rounds. And it was against Clottey, a guy who would do very well against the likes of Mosley, Berto and Williams. In fact, Bob Arum recently said that people don’t actually realize how good Joshua Clottey is.

But at the end of the day I guess people like to talk. They say Cotto is damaged goods. They say the tattoos are a sign of mental weakness. They say the Margarito fight destroyed him. I say this: Cotto is not damaged goods. The tattoos are a sign of weakness? Cotto had his body covered in tattoos well before his recent ones. And as for Margarito, I think it’s Hands of Plaster who will never be the same again! Margarito looked shot against Mosley and took another series of hard shots. I think all of those shots from Cotto have actually caught up Margarito.

So if Cotto does beat Pacquiao, Miguel Cotto seals his greatness by beating the pound-for-pound number one who is in his prime. And for me, Cotto has a great chance. Cotto is too big, too strong, and most importantly, very smart.

So the question is this: will Manny Pacquiao be able to absorb Miguel Cotto’s lethal left-hooks to the body and head? Hall-of-fame trainer Emanuel Steward reckons Cotto has one of the best left-hooks in the history of boxing. And Arum recently said that this will be the story of the fight as to whether or not Pacquiao can take Cotto’s signature left-hook to body and head.