LAS VEGAS — The fact Manny Pacquiao is favored to defeat Miguel Cotto tonight when the two meet for Cotto’s WBO welterweight championship is amazing in itself when you consider Pacquiao began his career fighting at 106 pounds.
Forty pounds later, Pacquiao will be looking to make boxing history by becoming the first boxer to win titles in seven different weight divisions, a climb that has seen the Filipino foil the boxing adage: A good little guy can’t beat a good big guy. From flyweight to super bantamweight to featherweight to super featherweight to lightweight to junior welterweight, Pacquiao has kept packing a punch while packing on pounds.
“Fighting Miguel Cotto for a seventh world title is going to be unbelievable, and that’s because Manny is a throwback,” said Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach. “He is like a Henry Armstrong type. You don’t have fighters today that move up in weight like this to win championships in all of these different weight divisions.”
Pacquiao (49-3-2, 37 KOs) — who weighed in yesterday at 144 pounds, a pound lighter than Cotto — has won titles from 112 to 140 pounds and also defeated Oscar De La Hoya in a non-title fight at 147 pounds last year. Through each climb up in weight, Pacquiao has become a better-rounded fighter, while maintaining his punching power.
In his last fight, he scored a one-punch knockout of former welterweight and junior welterweight champion Ricky Hatton in the second round. Before that he made De La Hoya retire on his stool after eight rounds, and before that he dethroned lightweight champion David Diaz on a TKO in the ninth round.
Now Pacquiao, 30, is regarded by many as the sport’s pound-for-pound best fighter, despite the return of unbeaten Floyd Mayweather Jr.
“He is carrying his punch and his power with him along with his speed,” Roach said. “He is just getting better and better in the ring. This is just one of the greatest achievements ever. He’s passing people like Sugar Ray Leonard, who was a six-time world champion, and Tommy Hearns. He is in the level of the top five fighters of all-time of any era.”
That might be a stretch, but winning a title in seven different weight divisions is noteworthy even in a day when multiple sanctioning organizations and fractured weight divisions have diluted the significance of winning title.
“I’m honored to be fighting for another world championship,” Pacquiao said. “That’s why I am very hungry for this fight.”
Cotto, who has won championships at junior welterweight and welterweight, isn’t impressed. Unlike De La Hoya who dropped down from 154 to 147 to face Pacquiao, Cotto, 29, is a natural welterweight in the prime of his career and doubts the Filipino can hold up to his power and his pressure.
“If he thinks he is going to win seven titles in seven weight divisions now, he has picked the wrong moment, the wrong fighter and the wrong opponent,” said Cotto.
Though he was right at the 145-pound weight limit for yesterday’s weigh-in, Cotto (34-1, 27 KOs) could be as heavy as 154 pounds tonight. Nonetheless, Roach isn’t concerned about Cotto’s size.
“I have no worries about that because [size] doesn’t win fights,” Roach said. “Boxing ability wins fights and Manny is a better boxer than him.”
All that will be proven in the ring tonight where Pacquiao hopes to make history.
PREDICTION
I’ve gone back and forth on this one, initially thinking Cotto’s size and power would be enough to eventually break down Pacquiao. Then I thought about how many times Cotto got hit in his loss to Antonio Margarito and his narrow victory over Joshua Clottey.
Pacquiao is an accurate puncher with the faster hand speed. If he stays on his toes, settles for quick combinations and uses the ring, he should be able to pull out a decision. But Pacquiao loves to fight and doesn’t mind exchanging, and sometimes that gets him into trouble. He was staggered by a clean left hook in the second round of his second fight with Juan Manuel Marquez. That same left hook from Cotto could end the fight.
I asked my daughter and my goldfish who they thought would win, and both like Pacquiao. But I’ll stick with my original thought and go with Cotto. He’s the bigger man, he’s determined, he’s got a bunch of new tattoos and he has been in the ring with speed having beaten Shane Mosley and Zab Judah.
Cotto by TKO in the 10th. Viva Puerto Rico.
george.willis@nypost.com
Source: nypost.com
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