Upcoming Super Fight Between Pacquiao and Cotto

By Richard Bailey: To start with WOW! This is a fight fans fight. A fight the fans want to see, and now it’s happening. Bravo, Mr. Bob Arum, bravo indeed. Why is this fight a great match up? Simple! It’s the real POWER V PRECISION a title that should not have been given to the Ricky Hatton v Paulie, oh what’s his face. With respect to Ricky Hatton and Paulie, well Ricky really, their fight was exciting but only because we was all waiting for the knockout punch that we all thought was coming, but never did.

Instead, a ref stoppage ended their fight which showed very little POWER in Ricky, and absolutely no PRECISION on Paulie’s part. Let’s face it Paulie never really had a chance in their meeting, and on that BOMBSHELL, neither does Manny. I mean yes Manny is the number one pound for pound and yes he is a five division champ, but his last 3 fights at the higher weights are questionable at least.
David Diaz is a very tough opponent, but at the very best maybe 4th best in the lightweight division. Why didn’t Manny fight the likes of Juan Diaz, or Joel Casamayor the recognized lineal champ of the lightweight division and the number one respectively, why Diaz, because he knew he would beat him with ease.

Same as De la Hoya, in his prime was a fantastic entertaining boxer with so much heart and skill it was uplifting almost to watch him beat the likes of Julio Cesar Chavez and Ricardo Mayorga, but everyone knew from past examples, when you fight in a higher weight class and then drop down a division you are going to show a bad performance and get beaten BADLEY! Am I right Roy Jones Jr. fans?

The fact Manny came up two divisions to fight him doesn’t even enter my head anymore because the bottom line is, he wasn’t fighting De la Hoya in there, he was fighting a washed up chump who knew he was shot and was going to lose.

Now we have Ricky “the Hitman” Hatton, one of my favorite boxers of all time to come out of England along with Chris Eubank and The Dark Destroyer Nigel Benn. He was a monster at light welterweight but it was a very weak division and his biggest win was over Kostya Tszyu.

With Ricky’s style of fighting we all knew Manny would destroy him and he really, really did. In fact I have only ever watched that knockout once because of the sheer devastation of it. We were all worried for Ricky at that moment and sad as it is to say, he should defiantly retire because he has nothing left to prove and while Manny is number one, Ricky never will be.

Ricky was a brilliant fighter but by no means GREAT. Now however Manny’s not fighting an over rated fighter, or a washed up fighter. He is fighting Cotto, a man who quite simply has never ducked anyone in the sport or the 2 weight classes he has fought in, but he has also beat them all, apart from his loss to Antonio Margarito, but until a rematch between them is held I don’t hold it against him.

Purely because of the loaded gloves controversy Cotto has beat Sugar Shane Mosley, Zab Judah, Joshua Clotty, Michael Jennings, Carlos Quintana, Lovemore Ndou, Paulie Malignaggi, and Ricardo Torres. That’s 7 world champions in two divisions (Light Welterweight and Welterweight) who were at their peaks and considered the best in their weight class.

Manny is now fighting a man who holds unique boxing skills, mixed with a warrior and brawlers heart, that just so happens to have some of the most accurate punch records of the sweet science. He also hits hard, 27 knockouts in 34 wins is impressive. He is a very good body puncher which is where Manny is weak his two knockout losses were to the body.

He has great footwork and can handle speed mixed with power very well. He beat Sugar Shane for goodness sake who is arguably one of the hardest hitters in the sport and is just as fast as Manny. He also has the height and arm length advantage, and of course the major one, the natural weight advantage.

Cotto will come into the fight weighing easily 156 pounds where as Manny will maybe if he is lucky weight 149- 150, and Manny does not have a great chin any ways. The one shot Ricky manages to land shocked Manny and backed him up a bit, neither has he really had a competitive fight since his questionable victory over Juan Manuel Marquez.

Who in my opinion and many others won both of their fights. Speed does kill indeed, but in the sweet science of boxing, the right timing and skill mixed with power can KILL SPEED. So my prediction for this fight is simple, the first round Manny will try and work out Cotto’s style and pace as will Cotto with Manny.

Then maybe round 5 or 6 when a few punches land and a bit of dancing happens around the ring, Cotto will land some heavy blows and Manny will go down for the count. Although he will rise, I see a Cotto victory by ways of TKO by maybe end of round 6 or mid round 7.

This fight has all the makings for Ring Magazine’s Fight of the Year award. Two true warriors who fight for their fans and countries on their backs, plenty of skill, danger, excitement, and precision and power all in one. I for one can’t wait.

Source: boxingnews24.com