Pacquiao-Cotto: RING GENERALSHIP

In Boxing, a fighter’s physical attributes are useless without the intelligence required to maximize its potentials. A punch is nothing without the fighter throwing it. We can differentiate fighters by their styles, which styles match well with which, which styles can produce an action-packed fist fest or lull audiences to sleep with uneventful, tactical chess-match fighting. There is an old Boxing adage that I’m sure you’ve heard of before, ‘styles make fights’, and on paper, Pacquiao – Cotto promises to be intense from the get-go. This is due to their similar, come forward nature, their basic instinct that tells them in the heat of battle, instructs them to slug it out throwing bombs. This is not to belittle their ring intelligence, which this article is all about, but both Pacquiao and Cotto are known for producing high octane, fan-friendly bouts and neither man ever backs down. Both fighters have this intrinsic quality to seek and destroy, often using their own faces as battering rams willing to take a hit in order to dish out their own pain.

That being said, the result could all come down to who would be the smarter man in the ring come fight night. Ring generalship (or ring intelligence), pertains to how well a fighter can use a combination of sharp punching, feints, footwork and spatial intelligence to either evade oncoming attacks by spinning and slipping off the ropes and back to the center of the ring, or stalk and corner an opponent, cutting off the ring so they would have nowhere to run or hide. Both fighters have displayed this quality in their previous fights and both have had success to a certain degree.

For Manny Pacquiao, his fights with Oscar Dela Hoya and David Diaz are our points of reference when determining how well Pacquiao will be able to handle a fighter of Cotto’s caliber. In the Diaz fight, Pacquiao showed us the whole armada. He threw jabs, hooks, uppercuts, crosses, virtually every punch in the book including what I believe to be the ‘smash’ at one point (a punch made popular by Razor Ruddock, a cross between a straight and an uppercut). He had it all and he threw punches in bunches. He darted in, unleashed his combinations and then jumped right back out when Diaz tried to rough him up. As a result, Diaz was unable to land any clean shots on Pacquiao, he was simply too slow on foot to catch the Filipino. Then there was Dela Hoya, who mistakenly relied solely on his left hook which Pacquiao saw coming all night long. Freddie Roach saw it weeks before the fight thus rigorously training his most prized pupil to throw an overhand right hook, slip underneath Oscar’s left hook counter then spin the Golden Boy like a top. The plan worked to perfection.

However, in his fight with Juan Manuel Marquez, Pacquiao ditched all boxing knowledge of footwork and just simply followed his opponent around – a cause for frustration on the part of Roach who was clearly disappointed in Pacquiao’s overall performance despite coming away with the split decision. Marquez’s superior ring intelligence that night was enough to bait Pacquiao into going exactly where he wanted him to go, which in turn nullified Pacquiao’s attack somewhat. Pacquiao’s aggression can be defeated, it can be turned upside down with good footwork and excellent punch timing.

Miguel Cotto on the other hand, is a beast of a different sort. Cotto does have sufficient Boxing skill to become a counter-puncher, a tactician should he choose to. He did so against Shane Mosley and for most of the fight against Antonio Margarito. He uses laterall movement to dodge straights and uses his powerful jab as a counter, followed by shots to the liver. With side to side movement, Cotto can sidestep Pacquiao in hopes of landing a strong, meaningful blow. This is all considering he will be fast enough to deliver these attacks. Given his advantage in size and strength, ring generalship is Cotto’s fight to lose. If Cotto can have at least a fraction of Juan Manuel Marquez accuracy in this fight, he can apply his ring intelligence to throw off Pacquiao’s awkward rhythm and possibly give him the ‘W’.

All in all, even considering Cotto’s great boxing ability, I still feel as though it will be difficult for him to catch ‘The Pacman’ with something he doesn’t see. It will be difficult for any fighter for that matter. Pacquiao is just too quick but it’s not impossible. All Cotto has to do is land one telling blow and that could be enough. At this point though, I say Pacquiao gets in and out of harm’s way better than Cotto can use the entirety of the ring to corner Pacquiao and do some real damage. Pacquiao is like a slippery bar of soap, you just can’t get a firm hold of him. Advantage: PACQUIAO.

Tomorrow: INTANGIBLES

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