Pacquiao – Cotto 24/7 Episode 1 Reaction

Last night we got a glimpse of what has basically been going on in both camps via HBO’s 24/7. It is obvious that HBO wants to exaggerate the suspected turmoil in Team Pacquiao by showing us every bit of conflict that they can gather with a Manny Pacquiao that seems to be taking the fight very lightly all the while showing a very serious Miguel Cotto in very serious training. But don’t believe everything you see on TV, HBO has a perfect marketing formula in the form of its award winning series and they can pretty much sell ice to Eskimos at this point (see Mayweather-Marquez). But even without HBO’s influence, which makes for great drama, the fight on November 14th will be nothing like the blatant mismatch that we saw last month, this we’ve all agreed on even before the contract was signed between the two prize fighters.

Taking what we are given by HBO however, Cotto looks really good and seems to be pacing himself well in preparation for Pacquiao. Cotto already looks huge and will most likely enjoy a very significant size advantage that unlike Dela Hoya and Hatton before him, he’ll actually use. Along with his great ring generalship and polished boxing skills, his ability to take Welterweight power punching and absorb it with his full Welterweight frame will be one of the biggest advantages he will have coming into the fight and I’m not so sure Manny will be able to hurt Miguel.

We all know the Filipino has power, now in both hands, but we place that in question because simply put, Miguel Cotto is the biggest fighter he will ever face. If we are to look back at Pacquiao’s fight with Dela Hoya, we will notice that though Dela Hoya did eat a lot of punches, Pacquiao was never really able to put him in danger of a knockout. In hindsight, Dela Hoya most likely quit on his stool not because he could no longer continue physically, but because he wanted to save himself the embarrassment of not finding an answer to Pacquiao’s vaunted attack. This should cause alarm amongst Pacquiao’s supporters, that his power may not be enough to affect Miguel Cotto, specially a Cotto that trained well enough to absorb a punch even from a fist loaded with plaster.

That being said, how many times have we doubted Pacquiao whenever he faced someone of caliber? Taking on seemingly very difficult tasks looks to be the norm for this little dude, and that’s more than we can say for some fighters out there who claim to be the best but never fight the best. Pacquiao’s fists of fury have proven time and time again that there are bombs hidden in those gloves of his and if it is enough to bring Cotto down, then the sky is the limit for him. I still stand by my early prediction that Pacquiao will cut Cotto up pretty bad and cruise to a unanimous decision after twelve great rounds, but I am very open to being surprised and being wowed come fight night, by both men.

Episode 1 of 24/7 was, in my opinion, a bit of a mess. The pace was way off, the drama wasn’t built up like in previous installments and gone was the spectacular finish we all know and love. I’m still eager to see episode 2 and wish they’d show more of the two in training, particularly sparring bits between Shawn Porter and Manny Pacquiao. Porter is a prospect yes, but a very good one and from what I’ve heard, he’s been giving Pacquiao some trouble. This should really help Pacquiao in preparation for Cotto. When it comes down to it, training does play a huge role in the fight and for Cotto, he will have to work on his stamina if he wants to be able to keep up with Pacquiao’s frenetic pace.

But speculate is all we can really do right now until the next episode airs in about a week or so, or until a new development comes up. In all probability, barring any catastrophic camp distractions, I say both fighters come to the fight at their absolute best and give us an all out war. Here’s to hoping they do.

Source: http://www.officialscorecard.com/blog/