By Eric Torres: Hey there fight fans today is the day we have been waiting for quite sometime, its the mega bout between Manny Pacquiao and Miguel Cotto. This day may turn out to be possibly one of the greatest welterweight clashes over the last few years.

I have heard and read many opinions on how this fight will be decided for the last few months, but now it is time that I make my prediction on what I have seen over the careers of both fighters and from what I have seen from both boxing training camps for this fight due to the access of HBO’s Pacquiao-Cotto 24/7 series.

The key to this is going to be Cotto being able to fight in a very controlled fashion, which he has displayed time and time again. If Cotto can withstand the shock and awe that in my mind Pacquiao will undoubtedly try to inforce the first 3 to 4 rounds, then I see this as a sign of good thing to come for Cotto and his chances go up dramatically. I truly believe that Pacquiao’s best chance to beat Cotto is to beat him early on in the fight. Cotto is one of the best boxers in the world with undeniably great boxing skills ( ask Shane Mosley) and if Pacman is not able to take Cotto out in the early rounds it will mean that Cotto is starting to hit his stride even if he is losing the first few rounds, which I do see happening.

I see Cotto utilizing one of his most tremendous weapons in this fight and that is going to be his jab. Cotto out jabbed one of the best jabbers in the sport in Shane Mosley to offset the speed and rhythm of Mosley. I see that happening in this fight as well. I see Cotto being much faster than he has been in the past and utilizing alot of head movement along with lateral movement to frustrate Pacquiao. I am fully aware of Pacmans speed, but I am very aware of Miguel Cotto’s timing and effectiveness, which he has used to offset speed on many occasions. There is something else that many people are not remembering and that is that Cotto is naturally left handed, but he fights in the orthodox stance. This is going to play an important part in this fight and create confusion for Manny.

I see the middle rounds from 5-9 being very rough for Manny due to the fact he will not have disposed of Cotto, yeah he might win some exchanges but by this time might start feeling a little frustrated and uncomfortable about the situation. Another key ingredient for Cotto During these rounds is Manny’s lack of head movement and critics know this to be a weakness for Manny. Dancing around in the ring is fine WITH head movement, but Many lacks that. So it creates many opportunities for Cotto to exploit the head along with the sustained body attack that he will employ during the fight. Rounds 10-12 are my knock out rounds for Cotto . I feel he would have done enough work to Manny and realizes Pacman will not be able to knock him out, that is when Cotto will be at his most dangerous. Cotto will start to stalk Manny more and more, eventually catching him in one of the last dramatic exchanges of the night.

In Closing I understand speed kills in Pacquiao’s last few fights, But only in cases of an opponent being undisciplined, overrated, dehydrated and past there prime (Oscar and Hatton) none which Cotto is. That speed will eventually start to slow down from Manny, due to him having to really work himself more than he ever has in the past to keep Cotto off of him. Everyone talked about Cotto’s size and power being an advantage, but it will not start to play a role until the later rounds of the fight . The most important reason why I see this fight playing out the way I invision is because Cotto has a track record of beating guys his size or smaller with relative ease & being made to look pretty ordinary with guys who are bigger. Cotto will be able to impose his will on the smaller guy today in Las Vegas and unfortunately for Manny he is the smaller guy in the ring today. Cotto in 11.