Boxing mop-up: Manny Pacquiao versus Miguel Cotto
Fire Quinito rounds up all the essential reading for the Manny Pacquiao-Miguel Cotto superfight, so you can save your energy to argue whether Amanda really deserved to be sole survivor.
Tim Starks, The Queensberry Rules: “I couldn’t dream it any better, I really couldn’t. For the first time since I can remember, a mega-fight is a mega-fight on the merits, and I don’t have to make any excuses, things like ‘Dear non-boxing fans, please know that if you watch this fight and it sucks it’s not representative of the sport as a whole.’ No, Nov. 14’s 145-pound bout between Manny Pacquiao and Miguel Cotto is the best of both worlds. Purists love it, but at the same time, the New York Times is giving boxing some rare coverage and even the U.S. Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, is making predictions about the winner.”
Martin Rogers, Yahoo! Sports: “The problem Pacquiao has is that to many he is no longer a person or a fighter, but an ideological statement. It is an ideal of perfection that he can never hope to live up, to be everything to everyone. It must be remembered he is a human being, a fighter, from simple roots, not a magician. All the magazine covers (he last week graced the cover of Asian Time), Nike commercials and even lyrics about him in a Jay-Z rap song can’t change that. In the Philippines, the small signs of a backlash are already there. Some fondly remember Pacquiao the out-and-out fighter, the simple man of simple taste, for whom the ring was all that mattered.”
Greg Bishop, The New York Times: “Pacquiao craves companionship, seeking comfort in numbers. He said he likes good company, which explains why he sleeps in the condo while the sprawling house he owns nearby sits mostly empty, leaves in the pool, ants in the kitchen. Confidants believe this stems from his childhood, when he grew up so poor in the Philippines that his younger brother, Bobby, described each day as ‘survival mode.’ The path to reclaimed youth includes all of the activities Pacquiao missed, like darts, billiards, basketball and marathon karaoke sessions.”
Steve Kim, Max Boxing: “There is always the lingering question of whether Pacquiao is distracted or not. It’s become a permanent storyline of any fight he participates in. But (Freddie) Roach, says with a grin,‘Y’know what? We like drama. We have enough in our lifetime that we must like it. Otherwise, we would change things. We’ve always had problems, there’s always something going in Camp Pacquiao.’”
Dan Wetzel, Yahoo! Sports: “Roach’s strengths as a trainer are numerous, but two stand out. One is his dedication to teaching the game. He isn’t just about preparing a fighter for a single fight (although that’s part of it). It’s about long-range construction also. The second is that through the education process, his blunt honesty and unwavering dedication to the sport creates a trust with his fighters that can’t be shaken. Here’s a guy with a serious disease, pouring everything into them – he has no wife and few outside interests. One feeds into the other. The more he teaches, the more they trust. The more they trust, the more teachable they become.”
Bob Velin, USA Today: “Roach said he has a ‘Plan A and B. Either (Cotto’s) going to use his strength and come forward and show us he's a bigger, stronger guy, or he'll try to become (Juan Manuel) Marquez and become a counterpuncher, and you can't become someone else in an eight-week period. I'm ready for whatever he brings.’
Kevin Iole, Yahoo! Sports: “The popular opinion clearly favors Pacquiao, but Cotto is undaunted. ‘What Pacquiao did in the past and who he’s beaten doesn’t matter to me,’ Cotto said. ‘He’s not fighting De La Hoya or Hatton. He’s fighting Miguel Cotto. This is different.’ Cotto has an argument of his own to make, though few have advanced it. He’s defeated Zab Judah, Shane Mosley and Joshua Clottey and on paper, those wins look better than victories over the slow and plodding Diaz, an aging and dehydrated De La Hoya and a vastly overrated Hatton.
Tim Starks, The Queensberry Rules: “I couldn’t dream it any better, I really couldn’t. For the first time since I can remember, a mega-fight is a mega-fight on the merits, and I don’t have to make any excuses, things like ‘Dear non-boxing fans, please know that if you watch this fight and it sucks it’s not representative of the sport as a whole.’ No, Nov. 14’s 145-pound bout between Manny Pacquiao and Miguel Cotto is the best of both worlds. Purists love it, but at the same time, the New York Times is giving boxing some rare coverage and even the U.S. Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, is making predictions about the winner.”
Martin Rogers, Yahoo! Sports: “The problem Pacquiao has is that to many he is no longer a person or a fighter, but an ideological statement. It is an ideal of perfection that he can never hope to live up, to be everything to everyone. It must be remembered he is a human being, a fighter, from simple roots, not a magician. All the magazine covers (he last week graced the cover of Asian Time), Nike commercials and even lyrics about him in a Jay-Z rap song can’t change that. In the Philippines, the small signs of a backlash are already there. Some fondly remember Pacquiao the out-and-out fighter, the simple man of simple taste, for whom the ring was all that mattered.”
Greg Bishop, The New York Times: “Pacquiao craves companionship, seeking comfort in numbers. He said he likes good company, which explains why he sleeps in the condo while the sprawling house he owns nearby sits mostly empty, leaves in the pool, ants in the kitchen. Confidants believe this stems from his childhood, when he grew up so poor in the Philippines that his younger brother, Bobby, described each day as ‘survival mode.’ The path to reclaimed youth includes all of the activities Pacquiao missed, like darts, billiards, basketball and marathon karaoke sessions.”
Steve Kim, Max Boxing: “There is always the lingering question of whether Pacquiao is distracted or not. It’s become a permanent storyline of any fight he participates in. But (Freddie) Roach, says with a grin,‘Y’know what? We like drama. We have enough in our lifetime that we must like it. Otherwise, we would change things. We’ve always had problems, there’s always something going in Camp Pacquiao.’”
Dan Wetzel, Yahoo! Sports: “Roach’s strengths as a trainer are numerous, but two stand out. One is his dedication to teaching the game. He isn’t just about preparing a fighter for a single fight (although that’s part of it). It’s about long-range construction also. The second is that through the education process, his blunt honesty and unwavering dedication to the sport creates a trust with his fighters that can’t be shaken. Here’s a guy with a serious disease, pouring everything into them – he has no wife and few outside interests. One feeds into the other. The more he teaches, the more they trust. The more they trust, the more teachable they become.”
Bob Velin, USA Today: “Roach said he has a ‘Plan A and B. Either (Cotto’s) going to use his strength and come forward and show us he's a bigger, stronger guy, or he'll try to become (Juan Manuel) Marquez and become a counterpuncher, and you can't become someone else in an eight-week period. I'm ready for whatever he brings.’
Kevin Iole, Yahoo! Sports: “The popular opinion clearly favors Pacquiao, but Cotto is undaunted. ‘What Pacquiao did in the past and who he’s beaten doesn’t matter to me,’ Cotto said. ‘He’s not fighting De La Hoya or Hatton. He’s fighting Miguel Cotto. This is different.’ Cotto has an argument of his own to make, though few have advanced it. He’s defeated Zab Judah, Shane Mosley and Joshua Clottey and on paper, those wins look better than victories over the slow and plodding Diaz, an aging and dehydrated De La Hoya and a vastly overrated Hatton.
Gabriel Montoya, Max Boxing: “Cotto’s commitment was put to the ultimate test three fights ago when he faced Antonio Margarito in a welterweight slugfest. Cotto started fast, landing at will and taking an early points lead. But Margarito came on late and brutally beat Cotto up en route to a eleventh round technical knockout. It was a brutal and humbling defeat for a man who had always fought through adversity whether it was rising from a knockdown, overcoming a cut or getting beat on by the division’s best. Though many in the sport have questioned whether Cotto will ever be the same after that loss, Cotto has taken a more positive approach.”
Lance Pugmire, LA Times: “Cotto and his advisors say that a photograph recently obtained by The Times represents what his father, Miguel Cotto Sr., calls ‘overwhelming’ evidence that his son's 2008 opponent Antonio Margarito used illegally hardened hand wraps to help him score a technical knockout over the previously unbeaten Cotto. Six months after Margarito battered Cotto, a California State Athletic Commission inspector confiscated hardened inserts caked with plaster of Paris in Margarito's hand wraps before a welterweight title fight against Shane Mosley.”
Michael Rosenthal, The Ring: “Cotto bounced back with a fifth-round knockout of overmatched Michael Jennings in February and a split-decision victory over durable Joshua Clottey even though he fought with a ghastly cut over his eye for eight-plus rounds in June. Still, many wonder whether Cotto has fully recovered from the beating.”
Gordon Marino, Wall Street Journal: “Like Oscar De La Hoya, Mr. Cotto is a converted southpaw. Hence, the explosive force in his left hook, which he specializes in delivering to the rib cage and loves to follow with a straight right to the head. In his sparring sessions at Tampa Bay's Fight Factory, Mr. Cotto seemed in great condition but vulnerable to straight lefts from his southpaw sparring mates. And unlike Mr. Pacquiao, he is either on offense or defense—these two aspects of his martial art do not flow seamlessly together. Still, Mr. Cotto has excellent movement to both sides and is adept at suddenly trapping his foe in a corner and exacting a heavy price with his matchless body punching.”
Vivek Wallace, East Side Boxing: “Defensively, Cotto has had major issues with allowing powershots. This means his defense could very well play a role in his durability, and ultimately, the fight itself. He'll need to fight smart, avoiding the power of Pacquiao, and landing as much of his own as often as he can. Defense, dominance, and determination (to prevail despite the tenacity of his opponent) will dictate the outcome of this fight for him.”
Calvin Watkins, ESPN Dallas: “Dallas Cowboys officials have held preliminary discussions with boxing promoter Bob Arum about bringing a fight to new Cowboys Stadium. Arum said he would like to bring a main-event doubleheader featuring pound-for-pound king Manny Pacquiao possibly next May to the Cowboys' new $1.2 billion palace. Arum said possible opponents for Pacquiao include Floyd Mayweather and Juan Manuel Marquez.”
Posted by jaemark
on November 14, 2009 at
09:27
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Tags: Boxing, Manny Pacquiao, Miguel Cotto
Tags: Boxing, Manny Pacquiao, Miguel Cotto
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