Manny Pacquiao enhanced his status as the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world with a commanding win over holder Miguel Cotto to claim the WBO welterweight title yesterday.
The Filipino stopped his opponent 55 seconds into the 12th and final round in Las Vegas to become the first fighter to win seven world titles in seven weight classes.
The “Pacman” twice knocked the Puerto Rican to the canvas in the earlier rounds before referee Kenny Bayless ended the fight after Pacquiao had pummelled his opponent with a flurry of combinations against the ropes.
PHOTO: AFP
The 30-year-old dominated the official ringside statistics, connecting with 336 of 780 punches thrown to 172 of 597 for Cotto. He also landed 276 power punches compared to Cotto’s 93.
Cotto said: “Manny is one of the best boxers I ever fought.”
“I didn’t know from where the punches were coming,” he said.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Cotto landed a couple of telling left jabs in the opening round to hold an early advantage.
Both fighters picked up the pace in the second round before Pacquiao began to take control.
Pacquiao dropped Cotto to the canvas with a searing right hook in the third round and later pinned his opponent to the ropes with a series of combinations.
Cotto struck Pacquiao with a left uppercut late in the round and landed a right uppercut in the fourth before he was again knocked to the canvas by Pacquiao’s booming left hand.
The frenetic pace continued in the fifth and sixth rounds, although the Filipino maintained overall dominance.
In the seventh, Pacquiao landed a thudding hook and then an uppercut to leave Cotto reeling and he kept the Puerto Rican on the back foot in the eighth.
In the ninth, Pacquiao forced Cotto to back-peddle into the corner with a furious onslaught before twice more battering his opponent against the ropes. At that point, the fight was effectively over.
Pacquiao said he would not move up any higher in weight.
“It was a hard fight,” he added. “This is the last weight division for me. This is history for me and more importantly a Filipino did it.”
“I’ve promoted Muhammad Ali, Sugar Ray Leonard, Marvin Hagler — and Manny Pacquiao is the best fighter I have ever seen,” promoter Bob Arum told reporters after Pacquiao’s win.
Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach echoed Arum’s statement.
“Compared to all those names, he’s as good as any of them,” Roach said. “He’s the greatest fighter of his era, for sure. 100 percent.”
Cotto was taken to hospital for precautionary scans but said in a statement he was OK.
■MAD FOR MANNY
AP AND AFP, MANILA
The Philippines erupted in a frenzy of joy yesterday after Manny Pacquiao pummelled Miguel Cotto.
Philippine President Gloria Arroyo led the nation’s celebrations.
“The president joins the entire nation in rejoicing over the unprecedented victory of Manny Pacquiao over Miguel Cotto,” her spokesman Cerge Remonde said.
Mayor Joric Gacula of Taytay township, which was inundated in September floods, said the win provided some relief for its people.
“It was like a small respite for my townmates and it created a spirit of bonding and a little rest after the series of storms,” said.
He said he paid 72,000 pesos (about US$1,500) in pay-per-view from his own pocket to show the fight to more than 2,500 residents, mostly flood victims, who packed the town gymnasium.
The crowd watched the bout as they munched on biscuits — food aid from the World Food Program, which they washed down with bottled water donated by the owner of a shopping center.
In Baguio city one bookmaker had to return 200,000 pesos (US$8,400) to gamblers because not one placed a bet on Cotto.
Father Michael Sinnott, an Irish missionary priest who was recently released from a month of captivity by suspected Muslim rebels, said his captors had been eager to set him free because they wanted to also watch the fight.
“‘Your freedom is our freedom. We don’t want to be here for a long time, too, and we want to watch Pacquiao’s fight,’” Sinnott told the CBCPNews, quoting his kidnappers.
National police spokesman Leonardo Espina said crime across the nation dropped dramatically during the fight.
In the strife-torn south, troops fighting Abu Sayyaf militants silenced their guns.
“In the [southern Philippine] headquarters, we set up a big screen for our soldiers to support our icon,” regional chief Major General Benjamin Dolorfino said.
Eid Kabalu, a spokesman for the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, which has been waging a separatist rebellion since 1978, said rebel commanders joined in the celebrations.
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