By Eughine Dunnion: With the manner in which Manny Pacquiao (50-3-2, 38 KO’s) went about the job of beating tough as teak Puerto Rican Miguel Cotto (34-2, 27 KO) in a 12th round TKO last Saturday night, maybe now, at long last Pacman will get the credit he deserves. As a boxing fan of 22 years, it astounds me that boxers of the calibre of Manny never seem to get the credit they deserve until late on in their career.

The thing with going up so many weights is that you will, rightly, have most people predicting that you will not carry the power up from the lighter divisions and that stepping up to fight an opponent at his natural weight will be your undoing. Now while that is quite a sensible thing to say and something proven in boxing many times, you will sometimes have fighters such as Pacquiao that prove this theory wrong. With an unquenchable appetite for training and conditioning, the never say die attitude brought about from his days as a street urchin, the relentless rise of Pacman under the watchful eye of wily trainer Freddie Roach has been on fast forward the last few years. With great wins over Erik Morales (twice), Marco Antonio Barrera (twice), Juan Manuel Marquez, Oscar De La Hoya, Ricky Hatton and his latest performance against Cotto, maybe now Pacquiao will put these doubters to bed. The only question is will he be able to do the same to Floyd Mayweather Jr. (40-0, 25 KO’s). This is the fight the fans want to see and whatever the outcome I think boxing fans need to realize that we are witnessing two absolute greats of the fight game and whoever loses still has a lot left to offer in the sport.

My point with this, my first article, is to bring some sense to the arguments and discussions I see on so many boxing websites today. Fighter loyalty seems to bring about the most idiotic of articles and I think that if you are going to write for a website, magazine, blog etc then you at least need to exercise some logical thinking and not let personal feelings towards a boxer cloud your judgment. I say this because I think that we have some great fighters in the sport today and while I also have my favorites (Shane Mosley), I at least acknowledge when he is soundly beaten, like against Ronald ‘Winky’ Wright and hold no grudge against said fighter. I think that, especially in a sport so dominated by money and dogged by the problems of the last year or so, The Margarito hand wrap incident, the untimely deaths of Arturo Gatti, Vernon forrest and Alexis Arguello that when we get to witness fighters of the calibre of Manny Pacquiao and Miguel Cotto that we all need to realise that these guys are athletes who have trained hard most of their lives to get where they are and deserve our respect, regardless of our personal feelings towards them.

So who will be next for Pacman? My feeling is that the money to be made from a pound for pound king showdown with “Money” Mayweather will be too enticing for both camps and they will both eventually settle on a 50-50 split and we can finally get the match we all want to see. Just don’t ask me my predictions yet, If this fight goes ahead I will submit a full article on how I think this super fight will go down, till then, enjoy the new year.