No More Arguments: Pacquiao Deserves Crown After Throttling Cotto

LAS VEGAS -- There is no more debate. No one can question the boxing dominance of Manny Pacquaio, not after yet another devastating defeat of another of the sport's greats. Pacquaio's relentless speed, even at his heaviest weight ever, was absolutely too much for WBO welterweight champion Miguel Cotto.

Pacquaio won his unprecedented seventh world title in seven different weight classes Saturday night with a one-sided, 12th-round TKO over Cotto with 55 seconds remaining at a sold-out (16,200) MGM Grand Garden Arena, where a ticket couldn't be had for weeks.

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No wonder. Fight fans eagerly anticipated this matchup, wondering if Pacquaio's incredible speed, which has seen him rise magnificently to titles from 112 pounds and now to welterweight, would be too much for Cotto to handle. Cotto (34-2, 27 KOs), one of Puerto Rico's most revered sports legends, came into this bout with only one blemish on his record: the controversial blood-soaked beating he sustained 15 months ago at the hands of Antonio Margarito.

But Cotto now becomes the latest top boxer to succumb to the speed of Pacquaio (50-3-2, 38 KOs), who took down David Diaz, Oscar De La Hoya and Ricky Hatton to set up this challenge against a pure welterweight who figured to outweigh him by 15 pounds at the opening bell.

Whether this leads to the obvious next chapter -- a welterweight matchup against Floyd Mayweather Jr. -- is probably up to Mayweather. He'll duck as long as possible. But Pacquiao is eager to see that fight happen, and he knows that it won't be easy to put together.

"My job is to fight in the ring and that's for Bob Arum to negotiate that fight," Pacquaio said. "For now, I don't know. I'm going to take a vacation and spend time with my family."

He deserves it, after nearly ending this fight in the opening round.


"In the first round, I'm looking for a knockout shot," Pacquaio said, "and that's why I didn't throw a lot of punches. Last minute, I hit him with a right hook. I heard he was bigger than me, stronger than me, so I wanted to fight toe to toe."

That they did. In the early round, Cotto's strength and power took some toll on Pacquaio. But that would soon diminish.

"We knew how tough he is. We knew he would counter," said Pacquiao, who took more punches early in this fight than he typically does, and emerged with a red welt under his right eye. "Yeah, we tried our best in the last round to knock him out. I thought in the 11th round they were going to stop the round. I was surprised he continued to fight through 12 rounds."

The beating became so one-sided, Cotto's wife and son left ringside in the eighth, unable to watch anymore. Cotto came away with cuts across his eyes, his nose bloodied, and nursing a tender left shoulder which left him wincing to the touch.

When it was over, Cotto's mother tenderly kissed her son's hands and fingers after his cornermen removed the wraps.

"I didn't see where the punches were coming from, and I didn't protect myself from his punches," said Cotto, who said he will continue to fight (and not retire) even though his father and many in his corner begged him not to continue after the 11th round.

"I'm very proud of what I did in the ring," said Cotto, who turned 29 on Oct. 29. "I've fought everybody."

Freddie Roach once again had Pacquiao honed to perfection for this challenge. He was disappointed to see his fighter pushed against the ropes too many times but couldn't find much fault with the outcome.

"Manny's hand speed was too much," Roach said. "Manny's in-and-out motion was too much. Cotto was better than we thought, he had better hand speed than he had against (Joshua) Clottey. But once we saw him backing up, I knew the fight was over."

Cotto's trainer, Joe Santiago, who had been criticized for being too inexperienced for a bout of this magnitude, was surprised by what he saw. "He hit a lot harder than we expected," Santiago said of Pacquaio. "He was a lot stronger than we expected."

Cotto's strength and weight advantage showed in the opening round. Cotto was clearly the aggressor, attacking Pacquaio's jab with power punches. Both fighters stayed in the center of the ring, and Cotto seemed eager to set the tone.

But Pacquaio came out more aggressively in the second, slipping uppercuts and combinations to counter Cotto's stand-and-deliver style.

Early in the third, a right hook by Pacquaio sent Cotto reeling for the fight's first knockdown, but the Puerto Rican answered with a straight right that rattled the challenger. Cotto scored again with a left jab that went straight to Pacquiao's chin.

In the fourth, Pacquaio's superior speed dominated the round, as did Pac-Man's left jab and combinations that overwhelmed Cotto's power punches. The champion managed to maneuver Pacquiao into the ropes, where Roach didn't want his guy to be caught.

But Pacquaio responded with a flurry of punches, including a devastating left uppercut with 10 seconds remaining in the fourth round that tagged Cotto square to his chin and rocked his head back for a second knockdown.

The two fought to a near-draw in the fifth round, but Cotto emerged with his face marked red and looking spent in his corner afterward. The final 10 seconds saw Pacquaio attack Cotto with a flurry of punches that may have sent the Puerto Rican to the canvas had he not been against the ropes.

By the sixth and seventh rounds, it was clear Cotto had lost much of the power behind his punches that earlier had done so much damage. His face, marked by tiny cuts, was red and swollen. Cotto stayed squarely in Pacquaio's face, but the Filipino went after him relentlessly.

Almost nothing missed -- Pacquaio scored with hooks, uppercuts, straight left hands. By the ninth round, Cotto was in retreat, trying to hold onto what power he had left and backing up more. It was the critical round: Cotto's face finally opened and began to bleed. Referee Kenny Bayless paused to examine the wounds near Cotto's nose and on his left eyelid, but let the two continue.

After the 10th, with their fighter bleeding profusely from his nose and left eyelid, Cotto's corner asked him if he wanted to continue. He told them yes.

By then, it was just a matter of when it would end for Cotto, and how. The champ stood in bravely, but by the end of a one-sided 11th round, Cotto was asking his corner if the fight was over yet. He was mangled and a mess.

The left uppercut, Pacquaio's staple punch, finally took down Cotto less than a minute before the final bell.

The final Punchstat numbers showed Pacquiao dominating in total punches thrown, 780 to 597, punches connected (335-172) and power punches connected: a devastating 275 to 93.

Cotto walked to his team bus with his wife and children, but was taken to Las Vegas' University Medical Center trauma unit to undergo a full body scan.

Pacquaio, looking refreshed in the post-fight news conference, said he would perform eight songs at an outdoor concert. One man in the hospital, the other making music. That's the state of boxing now, until Pacquaio gets his shot at Mayweather.