Pacquiao v Cotto

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anybody watching this on pay per view?

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the best fighter of all time?


Manny Pacquiao beats Miguel Cotto to take WBO welterweight title

* Lawrence Donegan in Las Vegas
* guardian.co.uk, Sunday 15 November 2009 08.02 GMT

Manny Pacquiao celebrates after stopping Miguel Cotto in the 12th round

Manny Pacquiao celebrates after stopping Miguel Cotto in the 12th round. Photograph: Gabriel Bouys/AFP/Getty Images

Manny Pacquiao won a world title in a record seventh weight division in Las Vegas last night, stripping Miguel Cotto of his defences and his WBO welterweight championship belt with a performance that cemented the Filipino's reputation as one of the finest boxers of this or any other generation.

Referee Kenny Bayless stepped into end the fight in the 12th round but, really the contest was over long been then. Out-fought and out-thought, Cotto – a proud and strong fighter who was no-one's idea of tomato can – was knocked down twice in earlier rounds and as the dénouement approached his ambitions had been reduced to little more than seeking shelter from the storm.

Afterwards, on the advice of doctors, the loser was escorted to a nearby hospital for precautionary tests but before he left he issued a statement through his advisers: "Manny is the best fighter I have ever fought."

That was quite a compliment coming from the Puerto Rican , who has fought virtually all the serious contenders in the welterweight division. But what else could he say after the beating he received?

Even by the standards of Pacquiao's two previous visits to the MGM Grand arena, against Oscar De La Hoya and Ricky Hatton, both of whom he beat decisively, this was a stunning performance.

Perversely, those two wins failed to silence the small but devoted army of Pacquiao-sceptics, who insisted the Filipino had been fortunate to fight both men when they were on the way down. He would not be so lucky with Cotto, they argued. And they were right. He wasn't lucky last night. He didn't need to be. He was simply brilliant.

As expected, last night's contest started quietly, with both fighters measuring each others range and intentions. Of the few punches exchanged, Cotto landed the marginally more telling shots. That as enough to convince all three ringside judges to give the Puerto Rican the round, although it didn't take long for any sense of optimism in his corner to evaporate as Pacquiao's hand speed and footwork began to find openings.

In the third round, a two-punch combination dropped Cotto to the floor. He was quickly back on his feet, insisting he had slipped, but no-one in the arena, least of all the referee, was fooled. More ominously for the bigger and heavier Cotto, it was equally obvious to all that his hope of hurting his opponent with supposedly heavier punching power was a chimera. Indeed, Pacquiao mouthed encouragement to his opponent, egging him on to land a significant blow.

"I wanted to show everybody that I could take a punch; that the talk before the fight that he would out-punch me was wrong,'' the new champion said afterwards.

Alas for Pacquiao, Cotto could not accommodate his wishes. As went the third, so did the fourth, with the Filipino landing multiple combinations, one which sent Cotto to floor again, This time there was no doubt.

Many experts had assumed the champion's supposedly superior strength would make a telling difference in the middle rounds, but instead his large ineffective efforts served only to highlight the other's man's superiority. People knew Pacquiao could land a punch. Now they know he can take one too.

By the latter rounds, Cotto was reduced to a hunched and cowering shadow of himself, looking less than a boxer than a man seeking escape from the debt collector. The crowd, which had been split between the two men at the start of the night, was by now firmly in the Pacquiao camp. Las Vegas loves nothing so much as a winner, and to prove the point it booed as Cotto, finally convinced that discretion was the better part of valour, danced his way through 10th and 11th rounds in an attempt to avoid his opponent's blows. It was a needlessly cruel reception for the efforts of a man whose only failing had been to step into the ring with a sublimely-talented opponent .

When the end came, it wasn't so much a technical knockout but an act of mercy by the referee Bayless, who had no desire to see Cotto's already battered face take any more punishment. He was not alone. For the record, however, all three judges had Pacquiao miles in the front – two of them by nine rounds (10-1) and one by seven (9-2)

Afterwards, the hyperbole machine was in full flow, with Bob Arum, Pacquiao's promoter, describing his man as the Tiger Woods of boxing. "I get carried away a lot but I would go on record as saying Manny is the best fighter I have ever seen and that includes Ali, Marvin Haggler and Sugar Ray Leonard,'' he said

The funniest thing about that outlandish statement was that no-one laughed. On the night, the people's champion from the Philippines truly was worth comparison with the greats.

[ShelC]

I was talking with 2 of my friends on Wednesday about this fight and they said Pacquiao didnt stand a chance. They said Cotto would be too much, is too strong, is even faster and hits even harder than Manny. Ive watched Pacquiao quite a lot and have been convinced of his talents for quite a while. Hes pound for pound for the best boxer of this generation. People dont think he hits as hard as he does, thats hes just a fast, flurry type. But he hits as hard as anyone. Hes the truth. He'll take down Mayweather just the same.

BTW, i texted my boys this morning about the fight...still havent heard back from them.

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believe it or not, it is only today that i will be able to watch the fight... on torrents. i hate all the commercials in between rounds so i avoided tv coverage.