PACQUIAO REIGNS SUPREME AS HE STOPS COTTO IN 12!!!

LAS VEGAS – There were a lot of promises. In the end, there was only Manny Pacquiao.

Pacquiao delivered as he said he would.

He beat and bloodied Miguel Cotto Saturday night at the MGM Grand, scoring a 12th-round TKO of Miguel Cotto for the World Boxing Organization’s welterweight title and an unprecedented seventh championship at a seventh different weight. Call it the Magnificent Seven. Who knows? Maybe, a Great Eight is next.

Pacquiao (50-3-2, 38 KOs) said a heavier weight is not in the plans, but he makes it look as if anything is possible.

“I heard he was bigger and stronger than me,’’ said Pacquiao, who was declared the winner when Kenny Bayless stopped it at 55 seconds of the final round. “But I just wanted to fight him.’’

And just beat him.

Just stop him.

“Yes, yes’’ Pacquiao said when asked whether he wanted a knockout that had been predicted by his trainer Freddie Roach.

The fight’s promise was introduced by a video that included moments, punches and mostly faces from some of the greatest in the battered game’s history. It started with Muhammad Ali. It continued with Sugar Ray Leonard, Marvin Hagler, Thomas Hearns, George Foreman and Alexis Arguello. There was Roberto Duran, who was on the video screen as young man in the crowd as a much older one. The film ended where it started: With Ali.

Then, it was time for Pacquiao and Cotto. It was their turn. With their dangerous hands, they would try to pound out a new legend in a very old sport.

“Miguel Cotto always fights the best fighters in the world and Manny is one of the best,” Cotto (34-2, 27 KOs) said almost as if he believes Pacquiao had earned a spot alongside the all-timers portrayed in the video.

A couple of hours before opening bell, Cotto was the first to enter the arena, looking impassive as ever with eyes that never seem to blink and headphones that muffled cheers from fans who chanted his name. Then, there was Pacquiao, looking almost childlike with dancing eyes and grin that makes everybody around him smile.

Cotto looked as if he were going to the fight of his life. Pacquiao looked as if he were going to a concert, which he was after the fight. Pacquiao was scheduled to sing for his dinner at nearby Mandalay Bay after he fought for it.

In the opening moments, however, it was Cotto, who hit all the high notes. Cotto, usually a slow starter, quickly landed a succession of head-rocking jabs. He followed with a head-and body combination. But Pacquiao’s speed flashed like lightning in the first round’s closing moments. Suddenly Coot was off-balance and – for a split-second — looking uncertain .

In the second, Pacquiao’s fast hands rained down on Cotto’s face like a blizzard. In the third, they threatened to bury him. A Pacquiao right scored a knockdown. In a wild fourth, a Pacquiao left scored another one.

Two knockdowns within the first four rounds seemed to say that it was Pacquiao in a landslide. But that wouldn’t be fair to the resilient, always gritty Cotto. He had Pacquiao where he wanted him in the fourth, dazed and against the ropes. In the fifth, he rocked the Filipino, who suddenly looked as if he was on the perilous edge of serious trouble.

But just as quickly as the momentum moved one way, it swung back. As damage from Pacquiao’s sharp-edged punnches began to draw blood out from beneath the scars above Cotto’s eyes, Cotto went on the defensive .

The Puerto Rican danced away. He hid his battered face behind upraised gloves. With each succeeding round, however, it was harder and harder to hide from the inexhaustibnle energy that powered Pacquiao’s relentless pursuit of Cotto, whose white trunks were trimmed with red in the opening round and stained by his own blood in the ninth, tenth, eleventh and in the end.

Cotto promised that he would not go away. He said he would continue fighting. For Pacquiao, the future was already being chanted by the capacity crowd of more than 16,000 fans. They chant for Floyd Mayweather Jr., who wasn;t in the building but might have been able to hear them from his home in Las Vegas.

Pacquiao-Mayweather is a fight that the had public talking even before Saturday night opening bell.. Now, it is more than just talk. It’s boxing next promise, one of the biggest ever. —Norm Frauenheim

Another Midwesterner, another victory for Junior.

Saturday night, starring in the last fight before the one folks came to see, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (41-0-1, 30 KOs), son of the legendary Mexican, continued what is becoming a historic streak of meaningless wins against hopeless competition – this time in the middleweight division – as he battled his way to a unanimous decision over Michigan’s light-hitting Troy Rowland (25-3, 7 KOs), winning by scores of 99-91, 98-92 and 97-93.

Chavez, unquestionably his country’s most-protected fighter, whipped left hooks to Rowland’s right elbow and a number of right crosses to Rowland’s jaw, but never had his opponent in trouble. At his new weight, Chavez appeared slow and often found himself reduced to one-trick status – left hook, left hook, left hook. Still, he caused an initial series of cheers from Mexicans in attendance who remain ever faithful to his father’s memory.

As for everyone else, ringside sentiments were best captured by one insider who said of Chavez’s routine overwhelming of hand-picked Midwesterners, “He’s kicking the Big 10’s ass!”

Yuri Foreman was right all along.

From the opening bell through the 12th round, Foreman (28-0, 8 KOs), a rabbinical student, landed repeated rights for a unanimous decision over Daniel Santos (32-4-1, 23 KOs) and the World Boxing Association’s junior-middleweight title, also the first major boxing championship ever won by an Israeli.

For 11 rounds, Foreman’s righteous right bounced off Santos’ chin, cheekbones and forehead. The plodding Santos, a Puerto Rican, never could get out its way. In the twelfth, Foreman, who lives and studies in New York, threw a right to the body, sending Santos to his knees. By then, it didn’t really matter. On the scorecards, Israel already had won its first major boxing title.

But the knockdown served to punctuate the historical moment in the right way.–Norm Frauenheim

Referee Vic Drakulich seemed determined to stop Soto-Karass-Gomez for five rounds because of a cut. In round six, he finally did.

The “Firepower” broadcast began with six rounds of welterweight prizefighting that featured Californian “Contender” alumnus Alfonso Gomez (21-4-2, 10 KOs) against durable Mexican slugger Jesus Soto-Karass (24-4-3). After sustaining an accidental-butt-induced cut in the second round, Gomez boxed well and kept Soto-Karass off him long enough to win a technical unanimous decision by scores of 58-54, 57-55 and 57-55.

The shortened fight was closer than the judges’ cards would indicate. Soto-Karass had two points deducted from his tally for low blows. A stable-mate of former welterweight champion Antonio Margarito’s, Soto-Karass plodded forward and appeared to be making progress against his slicker foe when the fight was stopped. An unfortunate ending to a highly anticipated fight.

UNDERCARD
The evening’s final off-television bout saw a somewhat uneventful super welterweight match between undefeated Californian Roddrigo Garcia (5-0, 4 KOs) and Arizonan Martin Vierra (5-3-1, 2 KOs). Neither fighter was imperiled, and Garcia won a unanimous decision by three scores of 40-36.

The evening’s final off-television bout saw a somewhat uneventful super welterweight match between undefeated Californian Roddrigo Garcia (5-0, 4 KOs) and Arizonan Martin Vierra (5-3-1, 2 KOs). Neither fighter was imperiled, and Garcia won a unanimous decision by three scores of 40-36.

A bantamweight southpaw from General Santos City scored a second-round knockout! That’s what you’re supposed to say, anyway, when you read the result of Filipino Eden Sonsona’s latest fight. Sonsona (14-3, 4 KOs) looked rather impressive in dropping New York’s Eilon Kedem (9-2-4, 6 KOs) twice and winning by knockout at 0:17 of the second round. In victory, Sonsona even raised his head to the rafters and folded his gloves over his face – in a striking Pacquiao imitation.

Highly touted Russian middleweight prospect Matt Korobov (8-0, 6 KOs) easily handled North Carolinian James Winchester (10-3, 3 KOs) in a six-round fight that began 90 minutes after doors opened, decisioning Winchester by three scores of 60-54. That written, Korobov – a southpaw who is exceedingly fond of using his right hand – displayed some potential flaws. He occasionally chopped and slapped with his jab and appeared to get bored when Winchester didn’t throw back. These will have to be remedied.

Saturday’s second fight, a six-round junior lightweight bout between a Filipino and a Coloradoan, saw Richie Mepranum (15-2-1, 3 KOs) – stylistically, another mini Pacquiao from the Philippines – decision Ernie Marquez (9-6-2, 3 KOs) by split scores of 57-56, 56-57 and 58-55. Mepranum bore some resemblance to his most famous countryman by dropping Marquez once in the second round.

The “Firepower” fight card began promptly at 3:30 PM local time with a six-round lightweight tilt between Puerto Rican Abner Cotto (5-0, 3 KOs) and Texan Lupe Guzman (3-5, 2 KOs). Despite going the distance, it was something of a mismatch as Cotto prevailed with unanimous-decision scores of 59-55, 60-54 and 60-54.

Photo by Chris Farina/ Top Rank