Those who picked Cotto - did the fight go as you expected?

Absolutely spot on.

 

I felt compeletly fooled by this fight. I always thought Manny was good but Cotto was better. Speed kills and it showed in this fight. Is it me or does it seem that Cotto can get his face busted up so much more after the Margo fight? Before that fight he was in against some heavy hitters and took blows, but his face wasn't that bad

 

Cotto did what I thought he would need to do to win against Pac, which was use that powerful jab to offset Pac's offense and try to trap Pac against the ropes and unload on his body to the point where Pac's speed is taken away.

Pac, for the most part, did what I thought what he would need to do to win, which was move in quickly, throw a variation of combos and then move out, spin cotto whenever he was against the ropes.

What I didnt expect was to see both things happen, Cotto used his jab very effectively at the beginning and often got Pac against the ropes. What I didnt expect was Pac to stand his ground and let Cotto hammer him when it was pretty easy for him to slip away from the ropes if he wanted to. But there were a lot of times where he didn't and he just took everything Cotto was throwing. It was like he was doing rope-a-dope which I just did not expect. After which, he would spin out and unload on Cotto, landing really good combinations.

In the end, it seemed like the difference was Pac could take Cotto's punches and Cotto couldn't take Pac's.

 

The fight went pretty much exactly as I predicted in the Brit forum. I said Cotto didn't have an effective enough right hand and sure enough he never found the right hand. Cotto's defence was not good enough, Pacquiao's left was too easy to find, the lead left was a killer. The change in momentum in the fight after 6 or 7 rounds and Cotto backing up was entirely predictable.

The only thing that surprised me a little is Cotto's punches seemed to have no effect. I did't think Pac would just fall over like so many, but I thought he might be a bit bothered by Cotto's best punches...but no. Pac's power was as I expected, enough to hurt Cotto but he had to break him down.

 

I predicted a Cotto win, and no the fight didn't go as I expected.

Prior to the opening bell, I assumed Pac would employ similar tactics to the Oscar fight. That is to maximise the use of his superior foot movement, and shower him with shots in an 'in and out' strategy, avoiding Cotto's power shots. I had this belief simply because I felt the punching power, and the punch resistence favoured Miguel more. I also believe Miguel would get stronger as the fight progressed, becoming the terminator as he stalks Manny down.

I was horriby wrong.

Pac instead stands firmly toe to toe with the bigger man, and enjoys trading with him. The supposed superior strength of Miguel's power punches, just didn't seem to seriously hurt Manny or deter him in any way, in fact Manny seemed to thrive off them. Miguel's chin on the other hand, seemed to have failed him when tested by Pac's power punches. Incredible, who would have thought the power and punch resistence would belong to the much smaller Pacquiao. As the fight went on, it was the little Filipino who seemed to get stronger and become the stalker, hunting down a hurt and demoralized Cotto.

It seems that I (for the 3rd time in a row) have underestimated Pacquiao's physical capabilities when matched up against bigger opponents. Manny, I salute you. Congratulations on your achievements