Or was he trying to get Cotto to open up by giving him a target? Cotto came out very defensive and very much letting Pacquiao commit before throwing his own shots. He won the first round pretty easily. Pacquiao was fighting off the backfoot and then would burst in combinations, kind of like what he did against Oscar. The difference being that Cotto was waiting for him when he did it and able to hit him with some good counters. Then in the second round Pacquiao starts standing in front of Cotto with his arms up and inviting Cotto to throw his shots. He does that for about 30-40 seconds and Cotto hits him with a few and that when he starts to lead even after Pacquiao is no longer giving him a standing target. Once Cotto started looking for openings for his own shots, he stopped focusing on Pacquiao's offense and the second he did that Pac hit him with anything and everything.
understanding cottos power was paramount to deciding how best to fight him. Needless to say he won't have to do that against pbf..:rofl:rofl
To me, it seemed like he took a page out of Clottey's book in the Cotto fight. I am surprised how Cotto fell for the bait so quickly. He got overconfident and paid for it, lost his composure and it went down hill from there. Ive watched the fight a couple of times, and it seems to me Pacquiao had the better stuff in the ring that night both physically and mentally.
He was trying to make a Clottey impression. But seriously, when Pac was on the ropes and attempted to side step out of it, Cotto kind of cut him off and Pac gave a kind of gesture as if to say "alright you want me here, lets see what you got" so yeah he was testing Cotto's power and playing psychology games with him
It wasn't Pacquiao taunting or testing his power IMO......well it actually very well could have been.....but I think Pacquiao's offense operates best when his opponent is more agressive
Cotto may have had the ability to outbox Pac over the course of the fight and Manny lured him into a shootout by letting Cotto gain confidence. In rounds 2,3,4 you notice Cotto losing the gameplan he had in the first round, winning the fight, and appealed to the warrior in him. Basically, taking punishment to bring out the tiger in Cotto and wear him down with punch output/activity. Not for the faint of heart and not the best laid plan i've ever heard of but it seemed to work just fine in the end.
a little of these 3: 1. cotto attacks him, pac finds possible openings 2. playing the mind game. cotto drops bombs on him, he masks the pain... cotto loses a little of his confidence, loses focus 3. test cottos power
I honestly think he was trying to get a feel for Cotto's punches, there were probably mind games going on too there. I was concerned when Pac first did it, but whatever he was doing served a purpose. Obviously
Good points. Cotto took the bait and got into trading with Pac because he probably thought he still had the strength advantage and Pac did what he does best... caught him with something he didn't see coming. The 1st KD was nothing to be alarmed with as Cotto got back to his plan for a while. But the 2nd came right during one of those exchanges. He got too agressive right there and caught a fight changer. He never got his mojo back after that punch.