How to Ignore the First Lesson in Boxing—and Make History

How to Ignore the First Lesson in Boxing—and Make History

Before he's even allowed to throw a punch, the first thing a fighter learns is how to stand. Manny Pacquiao ditched the first lesson of the ring last night and won his bid to make history, becoming the first boxer to win a seventh title in as many weight classes. He defeated Miguel Cotto with a tweflth-round TKO.

Though Cotto won a fairly tentative first round with some stiff jabs, Pacquiao established himself in the second round with an unorthodox tactic. He stopped a good four feet off the ropes, stood flat-footed and square, put his gloves up to his eyebrows, and left his mid-section defenseless against Cotto, who is known for his debilitating body punches.

The Puerto Rican champion didn’t hesitate to take the challenger’s offer, ripping a combination of tight hooks to Pacquiao’s abdomen. The Filipino, however, was unfazed and returned the first of many blazing combinations that would eventually stop Cotto .

A boxing stance is meant to give the fighter leverage to deliver punches and provide balance to handle attacks from the opposition. Pacquiao repeatedly abandoned those fundamentals in the first half of the fight and in doing so—to put it in familiar boxing parlance—he took Cotto's heart.

Unlike Ali’s famous baiting move against George Foreman, Pacquiao, on several occasions, didn't use the ropes to help absorb the blows, but instead offered his mid-section standing a few strides off the ring's edge. At the same time, admittedly, it’s difficult to make fair comparisons between Cotto’s best body punches and even the average blows landed by the heavy hands of Foreman.

Nonetheless, the tactic was masterful as Pacquiao won the psychological battle as early as the sixth round, long before the twelfth round stoppage. There were moments when Pacquiao would step into Cotto's power zone as if to test the bigger man's will and Cotto simply would not throw. Cotto was afraid his opponent would slip the punches and quickly fill the gaps with a barrage of his own.

Pacquiao used his extraordinary hand speed and deception to land combinations from unconventional angles and body positions.

When a southpaw throws a left-hand lead—as opposed to the conventional right jab—to set up combinations, it’s sometimes seen as an insult to his opponent’s defense and/or speed. One gauge of Pacquiao’s growth as a fighter and his recent dominance is the number of left-hand leads he has been able to land, particularly in his last three fights against Oscar de la Hoya, David Díaz, and Ricky Hatton.

Last night Pacquiao threw fewer left leads than he has in some time, in part, out of respect for the size, power and counter-punching ability of Miguel Cotto. It is, however, yet another example of the new welterweight champion’s ability to adjust to his opponent's strength from fight to fight without sacrificing the efficiency of his torrent-like attacks.

Pacquiao's preparation clearly was not just physical. One gets the sense that boxing has yet to show Pacquiao anything as challenging as what he has lived through in the streets as a kid of General Santos, the tough Philippine city that has apparently shaped the man’s determination and good-natured temperament. At every bout, he ascends and descends the stairs to the ring with a smile. And the smile isn’t a contrivance or a game, but an honest expression of his inner self and the sign of the kind of mental edge Pacquiao has cultivated as he’s matured—confident and always loose.

That mental edge tips even further in favor of Pacquiao's corner when one considers the cagey pre-fight sound bites Freddie Roach dropped in the media for the opposing corner to hear. Roach boldly predicted a first-round knockout and repeatedly called the Cotto team “green” and inexperienced.

He was, of course, referring to Joe Santiago, Cotto’s trainer, a pupil of Evangelista Cotto, Miguel’s Uncle. The younger Cotto and his uncle exchanged bitter words and, reportedly, some blows prior to camp, and Santiago took over Evangelista’s duties immediately after.

Roach’s mind games may indeed have taken their toll.

At the end of the ninth round, Cotto’s face was swollen and bloodied and still Santiago told his fighter, “One more round. I’ll give you one more round.”

Cotto did go out, and after three more minutes of dodging and prancing, took a few more sorties to the body and face from Pacquiao’s fists.

When Cotto came back to his stool after the tenth, Santiago looked at the fighter straight and lied, “Good round,” sending out the battered Cotto for the last two rounds.

It seemed, for a moment, everyone in the building except for Santiago thought the bout should stop. Santiago’s ego had taken over any good sense that the fight’s outcome had been decided rounds earlier and it was now time to take measures to protect his fighter’s health.

For the last nine minutes of the fight, Cotto, out of a sense of obligation to his trainer and close friend, was forced to protect himself from Joe Santiago’s pride as much as from Pacquiao’s final onslaught. Santiago should have tossed in the towel.

Cotto did reveal, in the opening round, hints of a plan to slow down the quicker and more agile boxer, by throwing a left hook to the ribs behind Pacquiao’s right elbow, followed by a short uppercut to the solar plexus. Unfortunately for Cotto, Pacquiao found his timing, range, and confidence in the very next round and Cotto didn’t get off a good version of that combination again in the fight.

By the third round, Cotto grew more tentative and found himself back on his heels before Pacquiao knocked him to the canvas. Cotto jumped up quickly, though he looked confused, and when the round ended, Cotto's face was already noticeably swollen.

Toward the end of the fourth round, Pacquiao put Cotto down again, this time more convincingly after a flush uppercut.

Pacquiao came out habitually quiet at almost every bell in the first half of the fight and alternated between baiting Cotto, attacking with flurries, and absorbing punches that got progressively weaker as the rounds went on. Cotto lost power not from fatigue, but, more likely, from a waning spirit.

By the seventh round, Cotto became trigger shy and hopped on his bike, dodging Pacquiao for the remainder of the bout.

Credit should go to strength and conditioning trainer Alex Ariza, as Pacquiao looked energetic in the late rounds, even in trying to chase the elusive Cotto. The Filipino did have stretches where he stopped moving and covered up with his back against the ropes, but invariably Pacquiao would circle out and burst open with stinging combinations.

One got the sense that when Cotto got up on his toes to backpedal, he might explode any moment, but the evasive dancing proved to be a final survival tactic that stretched across several rounds. Pacquiao even urged Cotto a number of times to stand and exchange. Cotto, instead, stayed out of range.

For the last three rounds, Cotto did everything but turn his back and jump out of the ring to keep away from Pacquiao. At a few points, the Filipino even dropped his hands to his side as if bored.

What’s next for the new welterweight champion? The fighter himself said, after this tough match with Cotto, a vacation is immediately ahead. Freddie Roach, on the other hand, called out Floyd Mayweather, Jr.

Note: In Cotto’s only other professional loss, he was bloodied terribly by Antonio Margarito. Plaster was found in Margarito’s gloves just prior to his fight with Shane Mosley, and many suspect he had done the same against in his match against Cotto. One wonders whether Cotto’s cuts and swelling last night were exacerbated by excessive scar tissue from his fight with Margarito.