By Manuel Perez: Manny Pacquiao will be trying to make boxing history on November 14th by winning seven world titles in seven different weight divisions when he steps in the ring with WBO welterweight champion Miguel Cotto at the MGM Grand, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Cotto, 29, will have his World Boxing Organization title on the line despite the fight being held at a 145 pound catch weight for the bout, a move to make it a tad easier for Pacquiao to match up with the talented Puerto Rican fighter.

It’s sad that there has to be a catch weight for this fight, because it taints the bout in my eyes. How can a title be on the line when the fight is being held at a catch weight? I have no problem with the made up Diamond belt being on the line considering that it was designed at the spur of the moment just for this type of occasion. But the WBO title shouldn’t be on the line unless the fight is being held at the full 147 pound limit of the welterweight division.
Never the less, the title will be on the line for this fight and there’s nothing Cotto can do about it other than beat Pacquiao black and blue and send him packing. Pacquiao needs to forget about trying to pick up belts and should focus more on picking up his teeth after this fight is over with. Pacquiao has bit off more than he can chew by moving up in weight to fight Miguel Cotto.

This isn’t a shot Oscar De La Hoya or a Ricky Hatton fighting in a primitive caveman style against him. This is a skilled fighter still in his prime and ready to take Pacquiao’s head clean off his shoulders. Cotto is going to rip into Pacquiao and bust him, cause both eyes to bleed, his nose to leak blood everywhere and color his trunks a bright red for this fight. I just hope that Pacquiao can stay standing long enough for Cotto to finish the beating without Pacquiao bowing out of it quickly.

Pacquiao may be going into this fight hoping to get a 7th world title, but he’ll come out of it with by far the worst beating of his career, one that will cause him to think seriously about retiring from boxing. Pacquiao may pick up a 7th title in the future if he sticks around after this fight and finds an easier mark to fight, but he won’t be getting any 7th title in this fight.

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What Pacquiao will be getting is bloodied and battered in the worst way. I rarely feel sorry for a fighter when they’re taking a beating, but I think I’ll feel bad for Pacquiao if Cotto takes him apart too badly in this fight. I don’t want Pacquiao to be torn apart by the hard punching Cotto. I just want him beaten badly enough to the point where Pacquiao understands that he’s over reached the potential of his body.

Every fighter much know their potential, and for Pacquiao he’s going to find out his limit against Cotto on November 14th. After they carry Pacquiao out of the ring on a stretcher, Pacquiao may rethink his desire for a 7th world title.

Who knows, maybe one of the boxing organizations can create another special made up title for Pacquiao to fight for against one of the smaller, weaker fighters so that he can try to get his 7th world title that way. But I don’t see it happening against Cotto nor any of the other welterweight champions unless they’re forced to fight at some god awful catch weight of 140 or less.

Miguel Cotto appears to be confident and focused just days away from the biggest fight of his career against the pride of the Philippines. Far from being intimidated by the prospect of facing a six weight champion, Cotto feels he isn't getting enough respect as a great fighter in his own right.

Claims from Freddie Roach that his first loss had hit him hard were rebuffed by Cotto, who responded:

“Why don’t you ask Manny that question because he has had three losses I have just one,”

“Sometimes when you lose you win. Since Margarito great things have come to my career.

“This is the problem,” Cotto said. “Freddie Roach is not the guy who is going to climb into the ring. If he prepares Manny for just nine rounds then he has three more rounds.

“He (Roach) can say whatever he wants. One day he says the first round and the next day he says round seven.

“He (Pacquaio) can fight Mayweather as many times as he wants after I beat him,” Cotto said.

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Whether this confidence will transfer well into the ring when the fight starts is another matter, but if nothing else, Cotto will come at Pacquaio with everything he has. The real decider of the fight will be how well Pac-man's power has translated into yet another weight class, and whether Cotto can hurt Manny with his famous body punching. Many people thought Ricky Hatton would provide a similar test for Pacquaio, but a sloppy defence and a great game plan from Freddie Roach saw him blasted out in the early rounds.

Most still think Manny's march towards a showdown with the other pound for pound claimant Floyd Mayweather will continue, and that he will run right through Cotto. Certainly the odds have Cotto as an underdog, but this wouldn't be the first time that he has been counted out and won anyway.

Source: examiner.com

Top boxing columnist King J had the honor of interviewing Team Pacquiao at the Wild Card Boxing gym in Los Angeles on Oct. 30, just two weeks before the biggest fight of the year: Manny Pacquiao vs. Miguel Cotto.

The highly anticipated super mega fight is taking place on Nov. 14, at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. King J asked for predictions on the upcoming fight from trainer Buboy Fernandez, Manny’s brother Bobby Pacquiao, Manny’s advisor Michael Koncz, and of course the legendary three time trainer of the year, head trainer Freddie Roach. King J asked Roach everything, from the recent HBO 24/7 drama, an official prediction of the Pacquiao vs. Cotto fight, Manny’s workout routine, to training UFC legends Andrei Arlovski, Anderson Silva, and BJ Penn.

A video of the interview has gained much popularity on YouTube titled: New Exclusive Interview with Team Pacquiao.

The following is a transcription of the interview with Roach.



King J: First of all how are you doing?

Freddie Roach: Everything’s good. Long day a little tired. I did 15 rounds of mitts with Manny Pacquiao and 10 right after that with Amir Khan so they keep me busy.

KJ: Nice. What would you say out of 100 percent is Manny both mentally and physically at this point?

FR: 95

KJ: Nighty-five percent both mentally and physically despite what the media is saying with all the distractions?

FR: We have distractions all the time, some me and Manny drive off of. Does distractions give us problems? No. We train every day, work every day, we work through typhoons, we do what we have to do.

KJ: Yes sir. I recall you said initially it would be a competitive fight and probably go almost the distance and then more recently you said Manny is going to blow away Cotto early on.

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FR: The way Manny is punching right now in training camp and his power at this weight. I’ve never seen him hit harder. I feel he is going to knock Cotto out.

KJ: Can you give us a round sir?

FR: I am going to bet…one, nine, and 10.

KJ: Wow. Yeah you have been very, very great at picking the rounds. I remember you picked the David Diaz fight to the round. You also said you would be surprised if the fight with Ricky Hatton goes past the second round, and we all know how that story ended [laughs].

FR: Three...I did say three(Freddie smiles and holds up three fingers).

KJ: If you do not mind me asking, is your relationship with Manny as strong as can be, or was that a lot of HBO hype or are you able to comment on that?

FR: Oh no we had a little problem the day I wanted to leave with that typhoon and Manny came to his senses and called me at midnight that night and we hit the road. Luckily we did get out cause the typhoon did hit three days later and they did close down the roads again. We all had the attitude it’s not going to hit us. But it was real, and I felt I had a large responsibility with HBO being there, my sparring partners, and all the guys so I felt the safest thing was to get out and away from the storm. That was the decision that I made and by midnight Manny came to the same conclusion. I told him its midnight its late and to wait till the crack of down and he said no lets leave now so he left at midnight.

KJ: So that was pretty real then. Pretty accurate?

FR: Oh it’s all real. There’s nothing fake in that show. Nothing scripted.

Source: bleacherreport.com

Manny Pacquiao has a chance to win a major title in a record seventh weight class when he faces welterweight titleholder Miguel Cotto on Nov. 14 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, or 41 percent of the 17 weight divisions.

That probably doesn’t rival Henry Armstrong’s feat of holding the featherweight, lightweight and welterweight titles simultaneously but it certainly is remarkable.

Pacquiao has won titles as a flyweight (1998), junior featherweight (2001), featherweight (2003, THE RING), junior lightweight (2008), lightweight (2008) and welterweight (2009, THE RING), which equals Oscar De La Hoya’s six-division record.

And boxing historian Cliff Rold pointed out that Pacquiao is the only fighter in history to win four lineal titles (112 pounds, 126, 130 and 140), which descend directly from the original champions.

“It would be unbelievable,” Pacquiao’s trainer, Freddie Roach, said on a conference call Wednesday. “Manny is a throwback, like a Henry Armstrong type of guy. You don’t have guys moving up to win championships in all these different weight divisions. He’s carried his punch, power and speed up with him. He’s getting better and better.

“This is one of the greatest achievements ever. … He’s in the elite category. He’s in the Top Five best fighters of all time of any era.”

Pacquiao was typically understated when asked about the prospect of a title in a seventh weight division.

“It’s a good honor for me and to my country, bringing history to my country,” he said.

Could he make it eight divisions one day? Probably not.

“I don’t think so,” Roach said when asked whether Pacquiao could fight above the welterweight division. “We’re close to our limit at 147. We have to feed him five times a day to keep weight on him. I think this will be his final stop.

“You never know, though. The right guy might come along at 154 and maybe we’ll go there.”

Revisionist history? A reporter suggested that Cotto might be the first true welterweight Pacquiao will have faced. That includs Oscar De La Hoya, who many believe was a shell of what he had been.

Roach bristled at that perception because of how it reflects on Pacquiao’s victory over De La Hoya.

“Before the fight, they said he’d kill Manny,” he said. “Manny would’ve beat him on his best day. Why do people say Oscar had a bad night? Why not look at it as Manny having a good night?

That begged the question: If Pacquiao destroys Cotto, who most observers believe is a legitimate threat to the Filipino icon, will the critics then say, “Well, he was damaged goods because of the beating he took from Antonio Margarito?”

“Of course you will,” said Roach, referring to the media. “… That’s the way the world is. I look at it in a different way. I look at Manny as the greatest fighter in the world today and I think he’s going to prove it again.”

Pacquiao wouldn’t get into the fray, saying simply, “It’s their right to think what they want.”

KO coming? Roach stuck by his prediction that Pacquiao will knock out Cotto.

“Working the mitts with Manny this week … he’s punching much harder than he has,” Roach said. “He’s getting used to the weight; he’s very used to it now. He’s just punching fast and hard. I think Miguel Cotto’s defense is not good enough; he’s hittable. And people Manny can hit he knocks out.

Roach said he believes Cotto has bounced back nicely from his knockout loss to Antonio Margarito in July of last year, building confidence in victories over Michael Jennings and Joshua Clottey in his subsequent two fights.

He doesn’t want to allow Cotto to build any more confidence against Pacquiao.

“The fight with Margarito, he did take a beating in that fight,” he said. “In his first comeback fight, he fought an average guy and didn’t look great. Being knocked out for the first time takes confidence away, though. He looked better in the Clottey fight. … That gave him more confidence back.

“We want to take that away from him right away. That’s why we’re going to start quick.”

That might also be why Roach has boldly predicted a first-round knockout, although he didn’t state a round in the conference call.

Pleasantly surprised: Roach had been leery of training in the Philippines because of distractions but was satisfied with the work he and Pacquiao did over a month in Baguio in spite of typhoons. That wasn’t the case when they moved camp to Manila, where distractions abounded.

However, Roach liked what he saw from Pacquiao in his first sparring sesson in the U.S. on Tuesday.

“There’s still a little bit of jet lag,” he said. “I didn’t expect a great day (from Pacquiao) with the jet lag. He gave me 10 great rounds yesterday, though. He’s back on track. He’s very close to being ready for the fight.”

Pacquiao agreed.

“I feel I’m in 100 percent condition,” he said. “I can’t wait until Nov. 14.”

Roach has dismissed sparring partners Jose Luis Castillo and Urbano Antillion but will continue to use Shawn Porter. He also brought in once-beaten welterweight Rashad Hollway and junior middleweight Ray Beltran.

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“I think Manny was getting a little bit too used to the sparring partners he had, Castillo and Antillon,” Roach said. “They went home. We got some fresh guys to liven it up a bit, to keep Manny focused.”

Pacquiao vs. Ali and De La Hoya: Arum was asked how Pacquiao’s popularity compares to that of Muhammad Ali and Oscar De La Hoya, both of whom he also promoted.

“Ali was a proponent of a political position and also … became a spokesman for the civil rights movement at a time when it was really emerging into everyone’s vision,” he said. “So Ali had tremendous political impact, particularly his stance on the Vietnam War. He was able to come back and fight. People idolized him.

“Manny Pacquaio doesn’t have that major political statement; he’s not controversial. But he’s engaged in politics in the Philippines. And everything that he does is very pro-humanity. So he’s really loved by the people of the Philippines and the U.S. and all over the world. To that extent, he’s really crossed over into the American public. People know who Manny Pacquiao is and he’s genuinely admired. I’ve never, ever seen anything like the adulation, the way he’s treated by Filipinos in the Phillipines and all over the world. That’s something Ali never really had, that type of frenzy, with 90 million people in the Philippines and 11 million Filipino people around the world.

“As far as Oscar goes, he was popular in the U.S. He was good looking, charismatic, a good fighter. His popularity was pretty much limited to the U.S. That made him an awful lot of money. But he around the world, he didn’t’ have the recognition of either Ali or Pacquiao.”

Michael Rosenthal can be reached at RingTVeditor@yahoo.com

Source: ringtv.com