When Pacquiao beats Cotto

[Gandalf]

Cotto should not have agreed to the catchweight fullstop. Who else was Manny going to fight that could have stimulated some interest at a catchweight and make the same money? Mosley....Berto...Collazo?

Cotto is a bigger draw than those guys and he yet he gives up some of his natural weight advantage. A bit of a cop out. Manny had nowhere else to turn really. He really doesn't want to fight Mosley nor resort to fighting minor players like Berto. And yet we got the cop out result.

If Cotto beats the living Jesus out of him it's all good. Which I think he might do. But otherwise, catchweights really, really suck. Cotto beats a midget then I say fair enough because he drained down to the midgets current size.

Don't worry Miles,

Cotto's career high payday compensated for the couple of pounds lost in weight

Yep, he's a smart businessman too. I don't like these catchweights, that's all. Pac beat Hatton up fair and square and that was cool. I can give credit. Manny beat him up, Hatton was stupid but that's life. But to now try and use catchweights to secure advantages is really crappy and weak. It shows a Manny at the end of his limits trying to take what he can at the least cost. And as a purist, I just hate that.

[Fenster]

Cotto should not have agreed to the catchweight fullstop. Who else was Manny going to fight that could have stimulated some interest at a catchweight and make the same money? Mosley....Berto...Collazo?

Cotto is a bigger draw than those guys and he yet he gives up some of his natural weight advantage. A bit of a cop out. Manny had nowhere else to turn really. He really doesn't want to fight Mosley nor resort to fighting minor players like Berto. And yet we got the cop out result.

If Cotto beats the living Jesus out of him it's all good. Which I think he might do. But otherwise, catchweights really, really suck. Cotto beats a midget then I say fair enough because he drained down to the midgets current size.

Don't worry Miles,

Cotto's career high payday compensated for the couple of pounds lost in weight

Yep, he's a smart businessman too. I don't like these catchweights, that's all. Pac beat Hatton up fair and square and that was cool. I can give credit. Manny beat him up, Hatton was stupid but that's life. But to now try and use catchweights to secure advantages is really crappy and weak. It shows a Manny at the end of his limits trying to take what he can at the least cost. And as a purist, I just hate that.

Surely you would rather see the fight than not though?

If catchweights mean certain fights will happen then it's a good thing, no? And this is a great fight.

One year ago a fight between Cotto and Pac would have been laughed out of town - because obviously Pac would get killed. Now he's the favourite. Amazing.

[Gandalf]

Don't worry Miles,

Cotto's career high payday compensated for the couple of pounds lost in weight

Yep, he's a smart businessman too. I don't like these catchweights, that's all. Pac beat Hatton up fair and square and that was cool. I can give credit. Manny beat him up, Hatton was stupid but that's life. But to now try and use catchweights to secure advantages is really crappy and weak. It shows a Manny at the end of his limits trying to take what he can at the least cost. And as a purist, I just hate that.

Surely you would rather see the fight than not though?

If catchweights mean certain fights will happen then it's a good thing, no? And this is a great fight.

One year ago a fight between Cotto and Pac would have been laughed out of town - because obviously Pac would get killed. Now he's the favourite. Amazing.

Of course I will watch. How could I not?

But it would mean that bit more if it was 147 no questions asked. That for me is the real fight and if Manny topples the man then all you can do is sit back and say "fair play".

As it is, we have debates like this that shouldn't be happening. It should be a 147 fight. Is Manny really that scared by a couple of pounds?

[Fenster]

Yep, he's a smart businessman too. I don't like these catchweights, that's all. Pac beat Hatton up fair and square and that was cool. I can give credit. Manny beat him up, Hatton was stupid but that's life. But to now try and use catchweights to secure advantages is really crappy and weak. It shows a Manny at the end of his limits trying to take what he can at the least cost. And as a purist, I just hate that.

Surely you would rather see the fight than not though?

If catchweights mean certain fights will happen then it's a good thing, no? And this is a great fight.

One year ago a fight between Cotto and Pac would have been laughed out of town - because obviously Pac would get killed. Now he's the favourite. Amazing.

Of course I will watch. How could I not?

But it would mean that bit more if it was 147 no questions asked. That for me is the real fight and if Manny topples the man then all you can do is sit back and say "fair play".

As it is, we have debates like this that shouldn't be happening. It should be a 147 fight. Is Manny really that scared by a couple of pounds?

Maybe he is, but the important thing is Cotto wasn't scared about losing a couple of pounds, otherwise he would have refused the fight

[Gandalf]

Surely you would rather see the fight than not though?

If catchweights mean certain fights will happen then it's a good thing, no? And this is a great fight.

One year ago a fight between Cotto and Pac would have been laughed out of town - because obviously Pac would get killed. Now he's the favourite. Amazing.

Of course I will watch. How could I not?

But it would mean that bit more if it was 147 no questions asked. That for me is the real fight and if Manny topples the man then all you can do is sit back and say "fair play".

As it is, we have debates like this that shouldn't be happening. It should be a 147 fight. Is Manny really that scared by a couple of pounds?

Maybe he is, but the important thing is Cotto wasn't scared about losing a couple of pounds, otherwise he would have refused the fight

I can only hope that Cotto is not a mentalist and knows what he's doing. Like I say, if Cotto wins I will be a very happy bunny. I'm tired of Manny beating people that I like.

[Master]

I think I will be supporting Cotto but Manny Pac deserves credit for stepping up to welter legitimately.

[Gandalf]

I think I will be supporting Cotto but Manny Pac deserves credit for stepping up to welter legitimately.

WW is 147 pounds. This fight is at 145.

There is nothing legitimate about this fight besides the legal documents these fighters signed. Fight fans know what is real.

[ElTerribleMorales]

i gave credit to Manny for the Hatton win, i gave him FULL credit, and IF, and that's a big IF he manages to beat Cotto, unless there is some huge bullshit like a wrong decision or whatever other crap, i'll give him full credit also, stop making Manny a victim, he's far from it

[JazMerkin]

I have a feeling that whatever happens on fight night, this thread will be bumped back up for someone to gloat

[Taeth]

I just want to say sorry to you advid Cotto, fans he is a great champion, and I love his fighting style, but this is how I see it if you want to really simplify things

Cotto has good timing which worked well against Mosley, but Pacquiao is faster than current MOsley, and he has better timing than even Cotto. Its only natural because he is faster and has quicker reflexes along with the fact that he, Manny has been facing smaller, faster, sharper fighters all his career.

Power: Both guys can stop eachother, I have no doubt about that. But if you had to ask me who will land the cleaner punches more often, then my answer will be met in the next category.

Footspeed: the biggest determining factor of all. Hatton has much faster feet than Cotto, and surprisingly he couldn't cut the distance effectively at all, now even though Cotto has an unbelievable jab, and a really good cross, most of his damage comes from short, perfectly thrown left hook, either to hte head or to the body, and you really have to commit and get inside to land that cleanly, and I just can wrap me head around a way Cotto will be able to land on the outside effectively, let alone on the inside if Manny is using movement. I mean Mosley isn't great at using movement against anything that doesn't move like a zombie, and in the middle rounds when he started moving against cotto he really nullified Cotto's effectiveness offensively, and was able to counter big until he forced Cotto into retreat.

Now I know people can argue Mosley and possibly Judah are bigger punchers than Manny, but some guys just hurt you, and Manny is one of those guys, he lands so many punches so cleanly, that even though he might not hit quite as hard, it adds up to similar if not more damage. His speed and power combined with the fact that he throws everything into that left cross doesn't bode well for Cotto, Quintana was able to land that left hand, as was Judah, sure Cotto beat them, but thats because Quitana isn't super fast, and Judah doesn't move at all, and stops throwing punches when the going gets tough.

[Snakey]

When was the last time pac beat someone who was coming off a dominant win? It seems like alot of his wins come after his opponent has had a less then impressive showing in their last fight or have lost. Dela hoyas last win was against forbes and he didnt exactly go and knock forbes out, outboxed him for 12 rounds but it wasnt an awesome jaw dropping performance.To make matters worse Dela Hoya didnt just fight terrible, he looked terrible. It was quite obvious he was weight drained and i dont think anyone can dispute that. Ricky Hatton looked less then impressive against Malignaggi and had bad moments against a light hitting Lazcano. Diaz had a majority decision win against montano and a close fight against Morales and was never going to beat pac. Morales looked terrible against zaheem and even gets beaten and pac destroys him afterwards.


All of these wins are the ones he has looked nothing short of awesome in. These are the wins that had all pac fans screaming that we had a new god


Now before someone jumps up and calls me a hater, i have nothing against pac. He is without a doubt an awesome fighter. I have picked against him in his last 2 fights, was i sad he won? No. I thought he would lose, not hoped he would lose. But these are the obvious observations. You want to know why hes having trouble getting credit, these are the reasons. You drain a guy until he can barely throw a punch, of course he isnt going to put up a good fight. Hatton was always going to get sparked it was just a matter of when. I thought his chin would hold and i thought if he could fight smart and wear him down but I was wrong especially with hatton rushing in the way he did.

So if we had of known dela hoya would be extremely weight drained before the fight, if it was known 100% that he would be weight drained before the fight...would it of been that big of a shock to us all that pac would pepper him with fast combos all night until it was stopped? If we had of known hattons punch resistance was not all that great these days before the fight, would we of been shocked by such a knock out? The answer is no! Because we all knew pac had the tools to beat these guys, just the right factors would have to be there for to happen.

[HitMan Maez]

I think Cotto is a quart low ever since the Margarito fight, I know he did not look overly impressive agianst Clottey. But Clottey had alot to do with that by having a granite chin and good boxing skills. What I did notice about Cotto he looked a little slower in the hand speed department. Which Manny has plenty it will be a good fight whoever can make thier opponent fight thier fight wins, odds are 2-1 for Pacman we shall see.

[Rican]

The problem is that if you are considered the pound for pound king, then you should not be fighting at or demanding catchweights. Because this fight is at a catchweight, Manny is losing some respect, especially if Manny wins against Cotto, whom we all know had weight issues in the past below 147.

I certainly think Cotto is still good and definitely not washed up (he has been fighting the top welterweights for some time now-of course not all of those fights will be resounding successes). I also do not think that Manny can fuk with Cotto's power, jab, body attack, and ring intelligence. It will take Cotto about two rounds to adjust to Manny's speed and feel how much power he has, and after that, it will get brutal for Manny. So if Manny wins, I will give him credit, even at 145, a weight that will allow Cotto to retain whatever speed he has AND his well-known power.

[generalbulldog]

At first I had a problem with catchweights but then there has been quite a few catchweight fights in boxing history and former p4p kings like De La Hoya and Ray Leonard has done it.

Hell I didn't even know that JCC and Whitaker fought at a catchweight in '93, I thought it was just a welterweight fight and so did many people, but it was a catchweight at 145 just like this fight, except that fight was between the no.1 and no. 2 p4p fighters at that time. That was still a great fight even if it was at a catchweight.

[KKisser]

Cotto should not have agreed to the catchweight fullstop. Who else was Manny going to fight that could have stimulated some interest at a catchweight and make the same money? Mosley....Berto...Collazo?

Cotto is a bigger draw than those guys and he yet he gives up some of his natural weight advantage. A bit of a cop out. Manny had nowhere else to turn really. He really doesn't want to fight Mosley nor resort to fighting minor players like Berto. And yet we got the cop out result.

If Cotto beats the living Jesus out of him it's all good. Which I think he might do. But otherwise, catchweights really, really suck. Cotto beats a midget then I say fair enough because he drained down to the midgets current size.

Don't worry Miles,

Cotto's career high payday compensated for the couple of pounds lost in weight

Yep, he's a smart businessman too. I don't like these catchweights, that's all. Pac beat Hatton up fair and square and that was cool. I can give credit. Manny beat him up, Hatton was stupid but that's life. But to now try and use catchweights to secure advantages is really crappy and weak. It shows a Manny at the end of his limits trying to take what he can at the least cost. And as a purist, I just hate that.

would you give cotto full credit if he beat the smaller pac at 147? why don't they just fight at 140 so that cotto would get tons of credit and manny's belt at the same time? well anyway, this fight isn't for any belt i heard so i don't see why a couple of pounds would matter. if cotto wins at 145 he'd get more credit than if the fight is at 147.