LAS VEGAS — Many Pacquiao was fighting for those struggling in his home country, the Philippines, who were ravaged recently by a trio of typhoons. He was fighting for his family — for his father, who made a rare appearance — and for the millions of fans who follow his every move.

Pacquiao knocked Cotto down once in the third round and again in the fourth, pummeled him repeatedly and easily lifted the World Boxing Organization welterweight belt from the Puerto Rican with a 12th-round stoppage. The time was 55 seconds into the final round, as referee Kenny Bayless leaped between the fighters to save Cotto a more savage beating and ignominious end.

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Source: http://www.nytimes.com

Manny Pacquiao is going through his throwing motion at Yankee Stadium. With easy deliberation, he shows off the form he says he perfected playing elementary school baseball in the dirt-poor southern Philippines before boxing took him osver completely. His shoulder lips back, his torso pitches smoothly forward, left hand and arm torquing an imaginary ball into the depths of the air-conditioned players’ cafeteria, where he is waiting to take the field for an announcement. The diamond stud in his ear catches the light.

The baseball pose has a balletic grace at odds with the savage power that the best pound-for-pound professional boxer on earth exhibits in the ring. “Best pound-for-pound” is the mantra intoned with every story about Pacquiao. It sounds strange because he has never been bound by the laws of physics. In the past eight years, he has risen through six weight divisions to win just as many world championships. At the stadium, his promoters have arranged for the Filipino to make official his plan to fight Puerto Rico’s Miguel Cotto for a seventh title, the welterweight, which has a maximum limit of 147 lb. (67 kg). That is a 40-lb. swing up from the 106 lb. Pacquiao weighed at the start of his career.

He carried increased poundage through his past two jaw-droppingly awesome victories: demolishing Oscar De La Hoya in December 2008 and knocking out Ricky Hatton in two rounds in May. This is how Pacquiao’s coach Freddie Roach describes his skill: “He’ll throw a combination at you. You’ll think he’s done, but then he’ll keep pounding you. And there’s not a dense hardness to his punch. It just jumps on you. It explodes.” Roach, who has worked with boxing luminaries such as De La Hoya and Mike Tyson, offers a little poetry when he recalls the time in 2001 when Pacquiao first came into his gym. “I just did one round with mitts with him, and I thought, ‘Man, can this motherf______ fight.’”

At Yankee Stadium on this September day, the Puerto Ricans who have come out to cheer Cotto are jeering Pacquiao, but for all that physics matters, the Filipino is the favorite for the Nov. 14 Las Vegas bout. His payday, it is said, will be about $18 million. Back in the Philippines, you can pun on Pacquiao with pakyaw — a verb, pronounced the same way, that means “to monopolize, to corner the market, to take everything at wholesale in order to maximize profit.” Pacquiao knows he wants more than he has, more than boxing can give. At the stadium, he retails anecdotes from his life to a couple of Filipinos and repeats what seems to be both an assertion and a lesson learned. “‘Di ako bobo,” he says in Tagalog. “‘Di ako bobo.” “I’m not stupid.”

One of the most eagerly anticipated boxing matches of the last several years finally has arrived on Saturday, November 14 when Manny Pacquiao puts his pound for pound crown on the line against welterweight champion Miguel Cotto.

It seems that everyone has their own opinion about what the Pacquiao vs. Cotto results will be, but one thing’s for sure this is actually a fight that should live up to the billed premise. The bout is titled “Firepower” and both men bring plenty of power into the ring.

Manny Pacquiao unleashes his in aggressive, lightning quick strikes, while Miguel Cotto prefers to stalk his man and break down his body before finishing him off. Not only do both men bring Firepower, both could be susceptible to the other man’s shots, making the fight all the more interesting, and tough to call.

In boxing, the saying is that the good little man always loses to the good big man. However, what about when the “little man” is a once-in-a-generation talent like Manny Pacquiao? What about when the “big man” is still relatively fresh off a brutal knockout loss and needs to cut down below the normal weight class limit? These are just a few of the questions that will be answered come fight night.

There’s plenty at stake at well. Forget about Cotto’s welterweight championship and Pacquiao’s pursuit of a title belt in a seventh weight division. What’s really at stake is the massive bout the winner will hopefully step into against Floyd Mayweather. Fights like Mayweather vs. Marquez, Pacquiao vs. Cotto, Mayweather vs. Hatton and the like have all been huge successes and have been billed as mega-fights.

Source: http://www.mannypacquiao.ph/