If he was still around, sitting in a Viennese coffee shop and stroking his chin while he sipped his double espresso, Sigmund Freud would have given high marks to the latest psychological ploy from Coach Freddie Roach.
Proving that he is not suffering from cabin fever as he sits in the Manor Hotel in the leafy climes of Baguio City, Manny Pacquiao’s trainer has sent a shot into the bow of Team Miguel Cotto.
Roach is shouting from the rooftops that WBO welterweight champion Cotto is a dirty fighter and Pacman’s minder wants the referee (Kenny Bayless?) for the Nov. 14 mega bout at the MGM Grand Hotel to be on notice.
Roach charges that Cotto goes south of the border, below the belt line, too often. In Roach's words, spoken to reporter Dennis Principe at Inquirer.net, one flagrantly low shot to Pacman’s nether region should result in an automatic DQ.
“Cotto tends to get dirty when the going gets tough in most of his fights and I don’t want that to happen. “I will make sure the referee will be very strict about it.”
Roach said Cotto got away with a foul blow against American Zab Judah back in November 2007.
Though Cotto stopped Judah in the 11th round, the American did not easily give up and even had the Puerto Rican wobbly at times.
“Cotto stops his opponents’ momentum with that kind of blow. In that Judah fight he had five low blows,” said Roach.
Coach Freddie knows that no referee will hand Manny a disqualification victory based on a single, clearly intentional low blow.
The WBO adopts the ABC rules and they are as follows (WBO web site):
B. Intentional Fouls
1. If an intentional foul causes an injury, and the injury is severe enough to terminate the bout immediately, the boxer causing the injury shall lose by disqualification.
2. If an intentional foul causes an injury and the bout is allowed to continue, the Referee will notify the authorities and deduct 2 points from the boxer who committed the foul. Point deductions for intentional fouls are mandatory.
3. If an intentional foul causes an injury, and the injury results in the bout being stopped in a later round, the injured boxer will win by TECHNICAL DECISION if he is ahead on the score cards when the bout is stopped or the bout will result in a TECHNICAL DRAW if the injured boxer is behind or even on the score cards when the bout is stopped.
4. If a boxer injures himself while attempting to intentionally foul his opponent, the Referee will not take any action in his favor, and this injury will be the same as one produced by a fair blow.
5. If the referee feels that a boxer has conducted himself in an unsportsman-like manner he may stop the bout and disqualify the boxer.
6. A fighter who is hit with an accidental low blow must continue after a reasonable amount of time but no more than five (5) minutes or he will lose the fight.
The bottom line is that Bayless or any other ref chosen by the Nevada commission will warn either Manny or Miguel for an obvious low blow, even for two or three.
Even at that point, after a series of low shots, most referees will then take a point or tweo rather than handing the victim a DQ victory.
One of boxing’s most overrated and most fake aspects is how some fighters feign their terrific pain after getting hit low.
The protective cup was designed by a character named Foul Proof Taylor who used to demonstrate its value by using a stooge who put on the cup and then got hit in the family jewel area with a baseball bat.
But Roach isn’t fouling the Cotto camp. He’s just giving them the needle just like the old masters—Angelo Dundee, Ray Arcel and all the rest—would do.
Coach Roach is just doing his job and doing it well.
He’s trying to cloud the mind of Miguel Cotto.
Freud would be so proud.
Maybe if Pacman is floored by a Cotto low blow, we should call it a Freudian slip.
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