By Al Francis: In my second article for this site, published about two months ago, I predicted Miguel Cotto to knock out Filipino star Manny Pacquiao. I felt that despite Pacquiao’s great talent and ferocity, the bigger and stronger Cotto would prove to be a step too far, however I severely miscalculated! Some writer’s like to make bold claims like quiting writing if they’re proved wrong. Thank god I’m not that stupid!

That will only leave the writer with two choices, either be a man and quit, or go against your word and lose all respect. Think of all the great writer’s over the years, if Norman Mailor or Thomas Hausser said anything ridiculous like that we wouldn’t have heard of them. Even respected writer’s such as Nat Fliesher, who was considered to be quite brash and outspoken, knew the game well enough to leave well alone with such silly statements. Pacquiao proved me wrong, and it’s not the first time.

Back when the pac-man was lined up to face Oscar De La Hoya I was firmly on the mismatch bandwagon, thinking like many at the time, that Oscar would over power Manny in an embarrassingly one-sided fight. Well, it was embarrassingly one-sided, but the other way round, couldn’t have got it more wrong! I did manage to predict Hatton getting KO’d early, one little success sandwiched by two glaring failures, ah well, you win some, you lose some!

One man that doesn’t seem to be losing some in the prediction stakes is Freddie Roach, he didn’t get his round prediction right this time but he did say Pacquiao would make it look easy. And lets be fair, the fight really could have been stopped around the ninth or tenth round, as Roach predicted. Manny was simply phenomenal, I have long been a fan of his but I think this was his most impressive win yet, that’s the third time I’ve said that after a Pacquiao fight in the last year!

In the grand theatre of top flight boxing, Manny Pacquiao stole the script and took Cotto’s role as the stronger man, leaving poor Miguel without a part to play. In round one, they were each others equals with neither man dominating, but I gave the round to Cotto as I felt he just shaded it. After that it was all Manny. And let’s not talk about weight either, Cotto weighed in just one pound less than he did for his last fight, this wasn’t like De La Hoya, it was a prime athlete against another prime athlete and the better man won.

What next for Pacquiao? Anything he pleases, of course it goes without saying that the fight everyone wants to see is Pacquiao taking on Mayweather in what will surely be the richest fight in history, but there are other options in case Floyd still thinks he deserves a 65-35 split in his favour. Pacquiao could meet Marquez in a third fight in Texas at 140, or Edwin Valero at 140 in what could very well be the biggest all asian fight of all time, or Shane Mosley in a unification at 147. Manny has more options than Floyd, so where do all roads lead to? Certainly not Mayweather!

What next for me? I’ll continue writing and continue following the sport, I’ve been wrong before and I’ll be wrong again, let’s just hope I get get a few right in between! One thing’s for sure though, the next time I bet against Pacquiao will be his heavyweight debut!

The man is simply amazing.