By Stan James
Miguel Cotto has confidently predicted he will shatter the myth that Manny Pacquiao cannot be beaten when they meet at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas on Saturday (Pacquiao 4/11, draw 30/1, Cotto 15/8 Fight Prices) in one of the biggest fights of 2009.
The WBO welterweight champion feels …

By Mike Freeman
CBSSports.com National Columnist
The first indication that Manny Pacquiao had evolved from mere stardom into something universally larger came this month when he appeared in Time magazine’s Asia edition, making him one of the few Filipinos to ever grace the cover. One of the others was former President Corazon …

By Abac Cordero
LAS VEGAS – He was 30 minutes behind schedule, late as usual, but the moment Manny Pacquiao stepped into the main lobby of the MGM Grand on Tuesday the place went crazy.
The crowd that packed the lobby of the grand hotel here in Sin City chanted his name …

By CompuBox
If Mayweather-Marquez was the pay-per-view appetizer, Miguel Cotto vs. Manny Pacquiao may be the main course because unlike the former one can’t easily predict the result of the latter. Pacquiao’s attempting to become just the fifth fighter in history to win five titles in five different weight classes. Oscar …

Kevin Iole, Yahoo Sports (Sports.Yahoo.com/Box)

“This is a great fight fan’s fight. They’re two action fighters with styles that will mesh well in the ring. Each has the ability to hurt the other and each likes to fight an offensive fight. I like Pacquiao, though I don’t discount Cotto at all. I’d actually pick Cotto if he hadn’t fought Margarito. That fight seemed to take so much out of Miguel. In his two fights since, he’s appeared to have slowed and has been hit more than I’ve ever seen him. I think Pacquiao’s speed and quickness will make a big difference. If the old Cotto reappears, that could change things big-time, but I’ll go with Manny by decision.”

By Jerry Izenberg/Columnist Emeritus
LAS VEGAS—The names are passed down generation to generation — from trainer to trainer in the steamy gyms, from fathers to sons in the barrios and all across the Island from San Juan to Ponce:
Sixto Escobar, the first Puerto Rican to win a title in …

By Bob Velin, USA TODAY
Manny Pacquiao will be looking to make history Saturday night when he takes on Miguel Cotto in a welterweight title fight at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
The 29-year-old Filipino superstar, who made a grand entrance along with his opponent at the scene of the fight …

American promoter Bob Arum predicts a brutal ending in the world welterweight bout between Filipino Manny Pacquiao and defending champion Miguel Cotto this weekend.

By FightFan News Wire (10-Nov-2009)
Big George Foreman leads the list of boxers, professional athletes, celebrities and the esteemed press core who all have opinions about the outcome of FIREPOWER: Manny Pacquiao vs. Miguel Cotto this Saturday November 14 at MGM Grand Garden Arena! Read on to see which fighter the …

By John Nguyen
For whatever reason, fight fans have a hard time being objective about Manny Pacquiao.
For the most ardent fans of the Filipino phenom, he’s a demigod. His straight left vaporizes his foes, his smile calms crying babies, and his sweat cures the gout.
For …

By Tim Starks
So begins our marathon coverage of one of the biggest fights of 2009, Manny Pacquiao against Miguel Cotto, culminating in a live blog of the bout Saturday. Now — the importance of Pacquiao-Cotto. Later today — a look at the one major question facing each boxer coming into …

By Matt Stolow
Don’t quote me, but I believe the first round Saturday night will be as wild and frantic as the upcoming Examiner.com Annual Boxing Writers Christmas Party in Denver, Colorado.
Seriously, there will be the nationalism of two proud countries on display and as Larry Merchant once told me, “People …

By Martin Rogers
As Manny Pacquiao squeezed into a bright red padded spandex leotard, complete with a yellow belt and matching goggles, the symbolism was as fitting as the outfit was ridiculous.
Who knows whether Pacquiao fully appreciated the comical nature of the scene, played out on a movie set a few …

By SC
In preparation for this weekend’s super fight between WBO welterweight titlist Miguel Cotto and world junior welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao, Bad Left Hook will look back on the major title fight histories of both men.
This morning, we looked at Miguel Cotto. Now, a glance at Manny Pacquiao.
We are …

Las Vegas, Nevada -"MANNY MANIA" — Six-time world champion pound-for-pound king Manny "Pacman" Pacquiao(ctr),General Santos,Philippines is surrounded by hundreds of fans and media as he makes his ‘Grand’ arrival at the MGM Grand Tuesday for his upcoming "FIREPOWER" World Welterweight championship fight against three-time world champion and the pride of Puerto Rico Miguel Cotto, Caguas, Puerto Rico. Pacquiao vs Cotto is promoted by Top Rank, in association with MP Promotions,Cotto Promotions,MGM Grand and Tecate, will take place, Saturday,November 14 at the sold out MGM Grand in Las Vegas and will be available live on HBO Pay Per View.

Photo Credits : Chris Farina/Top Rank

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By Colin Seymour
TIME magazine’s lengthy feature on Manny Pacquiao in this week’s issue begins by describing how Manny throws a baseball with “a balletic grace at odds with the savage power that the best pound-for-pound professional boxer on earth exhibits in the ring.”
That angle throws like a girl.
Balletic grace …

By Brett Okamoto
Manny Pacquiao made his grand arrival at the MGM Grand on Tuesday, marking the first time in the world champion’s career the Las Vegas ceremony didn’t take place at Mandalay Bay.
Although Pacquiao is known to be superstitious — he stays in the same hotel room at Mandalay Bay …

By David Tyler
David T. - Fred you have already predicted that Floyd Mayweather Jr. and your Ninja, Manny Pacquiao would win their next fights. Would you like to discuss a possible Mayweather/ Pacquiao super-mega fight?
Freddie Roach – Dave, everywhere I go that’s all that I am asked, …

“Manny is strong right now. His right hand is just as strong as his left right now and it's ridiculous. Now I see how he knocked Hatton out. I mean, he hit him with a left hand, but I see how he hurt him with the right hooks. Manny has really been working on that right hook. I'ma tell you, Manny is going to shock a lot of people…Miguel is the bigger, stronger guy, more physical, but I tell you what, Manny's so explosive with his power, it's ridiculous,” stated rising welterweight Rashad Holloway as he talked about his sparring with Manny Pacquiao just days before his own fight tonight on ESPN against Gato Figueroa. Check it out!

Philippines, give it up for your boy Manny Pacquiao because I’ll be damned he just officially conquered Hollywood.

By golly he just turned The Jimmy Kimmel Show into a Filipino Karaoke Extravaganza, and if you ask me, he sure hit that ball out of the ballpark. Pacquiao is definitely a once in a lifetime athlete and personality in the mold of Muhammad Ali. It’s amazing how he owned the stage as if he was simply working the boxing ring. To put it succinctly, like Kanye West, got me singing, “it’s amazing!”

As if the hoards of Hollywood’s biggest celebrities lining up to get their glimpse of the Filipino icon isn’t proof enough of his status as the sport’s most revered fighter, Pacquiao mesmerized his fans once again this time on network television as he flashed his pearly whites, joked with Kimmel and did his rendition of Dan Hill’s classic love song “Sometimes When We Touch”.

The same way that Freddie says he has seen weaknesses in Miguel, we know the weaknesses of Manny. If there's any doubt, just review the eighth round of his second fight with Juan Manuel Marquez,” stated Joe Santiago, trainer of WBO welterweight champion Miguel Cotto, as he responded to recent comments made by world-class trainer Freddie Roach. Confident in their gameplan and their preparations in training, Santiago believes that Pacquiao showed some vulnerabilities in his rematch with Marquez that Cotto will be able to take advantage of come November 14th.

After reviewing footage, it's clear that Marquez did have some of his best success against Pacquiao in the eighth round of their rematch. A straight right hand down the middle from Marquez would open up a cut over Pacquiao's eye that appeared to bother him for the majority of the round. A left hook to the body also looked like it may have got the attention of the Filipino superstar. That being said, is that truly enough to formulate a gameplan to exploit any perceived weaknesses that Pacquiao may have shown in that one round? A couple of right hands that opened up a cut, a body shot or two and some decent uppercuts showed weakness?

I have huge respect for trainer Freddie Roach, but I can’t agree with his prediction that Manny Pacquiao will knock out Miguel Cotto in the first round next Saturday night.

I don’t dispute Pacquiao has incredible speed, and I accept that he carries fantastic power, but even so, one look at Pacquiao’s record will tell you that he seldom wins fights in the first round. The last time he achieved that was more than seven years ago, when he was still a junior-featherweight. That is 17 fights and 130 rounds ago!

That’s when he stopped Fahprakorb Rakkiatgym of Thailand two minutes 46 seconds into the first round. His previous first-round stoppage came in June 2000 against South Korea’s Seung-Kon Chae, then an unbeaten fighter.

In his days before becoming a world champion, Pacquiao scored four first-round KOs for a career tally of six. But his best round for finishing an opponent is the second, which he’s achieved seven times.

As the 2nd episode of HBO 24/7 Pacquiao/Cotto finished up, it is evident that Manny Pacquiao is not focused and enjoying his life as a celebrity more than being a boxer. Miguel on the other hand is focused, hungry, and a great family man.

When you get a glimpse of some of Manny Pacquiao’s training and sparring you can see his lack of focus. Last episode you could already see his unraveling by disobeying roach on training location. This episode you see him getting toyed with in sparring against Shawn Porter and Jose Luis Castillo, Pacquiao was getting beat up on the ropes and hit clean.

Roach had to scold Pacman for his lazy performance as the red faced Pacquiao could barely look in Freddie’s eyes out of shame.
Another moment when you see Manny act out of character was when he is doing his conditioning training with Alex Ariza, Manny tells Ariza “Shut the F— up Alex” and keeps using the curse word while laughing at him. The lack of respect for Ariza and Roach was captured by the HBO crew.

This came as a shock since Pacquiao is a devout Christian and rarely cursed before.