Boxing Result: Pacquiao Dethrones Cotto For WBO Welter Title

ByRichard Eberline

Manny Pacquiao solidified his status as a modern day great this evening at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, NV by unseating reigning WBO welterweight champion Miguel Cotto via a 12th round stoppage.

The combatants both came out strong in the opening moments, trading leather with great gusto until Pacquiao broke things open with a full-blooded right hook that had Cotto on the floor in the third.

But the champion got up and went back to matching the challenger punch for punch. Pacquiao proved he could take the punishment handed out by a strong welterweight and fire back in return, canvassing Cotto again in the fourth.

The champion was shaken up this time but rejoined the fray, slugging it out with the quicker southpaw in the fifth and sixth frames.

Pacquiao began to pull clear in the seventh as Cotto could no longer hold the center of the ring and was getting beaten to the punch repeatedly.

Cotto tried boxing the challenger but couldn’t control the pace of the bout, absorbing punishment at an ever increasing rate and dripping claret by the ninth.

The tenth saw Pacquiao take a well earned breather as Cotto sought to get his second wind but it was back to one way traffic in the eleventh with the Filipino challenger in the driver’s seat.

Pacquiao was handing out a lashing to Cotto in the twelfth and final frame when the bout was stopped after less than a minute of action.

Manny Pacquiao wins the WBO welter belt, his seventh in as many weight classes, via stoppage at 0:55 of the 12th, improving to 50-3-2 (38), while Miguel Cotto falls to 34-2 (27).

The undercard featured an upset as undefeated contender Yuri Foreman, 28-0 (8), shocked WBA light middle champ Daniel Santos, 32-4-1 (23), via a wide points decision after 12 rounds.

Santos had difficulty with younger southpaw Foreman for most of the night, hitting the deck in the second and twelfth rounds to lose a 117-109, 117-109 and 116-110 verdict.

Foreman captures the WBA crown in his first action at world class level.

Also on the bill, light middle prospect Julio Cesar Chavez Jr, 41-0-1 (3), posted a unanimous decision over Troy Rowland, 25-3 (7), over ten rounds.

Welterweight Jesus Soto Karass, 24-4-3 (16), lost two points for low blows along the way to losing by 6th round TD to Alfonso Gomez, 21-4-2 (10), for the vacant WBC Continental Americas trophy.