Did Cotto deserve to finish, or did Pacquiao deserve his knockout?

When I re-watched the fight cotto got beat bad in round 9 but I think he won the 10th and in the 11th manny wants to KO him and even then cotto still landed a lefthook which stopped manny for a bit and then manny carried on and cotto ran. But it was not that bad (the beating not the running)

in the 12th he got hit once and actually dodged the next attempt and then the ref came in. Overall poor stoppage if he wanted to stop it stop it before. Or stop it when clearly cotto can't actually dodge/run/move out of the way

You have to give it to cotto the following:

1-he showed good stamina in running a lot and still trying to counter at times
2-he never quit-very important he was not quitting this one
3-he messed up roaches predictions yeah mannygot the tko but not how roach thought he would which isn't much but I can't stand this big mouth sometimes

 

None of this changes the fact that Cotto was in much less danger and getting hit much less in the 12th than in the 9th. If it wasn't stopped in or at the end of the 9th then there's no reason not to let Cotto finish it.

And like I said, if you're going to stop every boxing match on the theory that "one punch can kill a guy" then you really can't have a boxing match. Cotto looked no more busted up than he did against Clottey, a fight he made it through and won. Yea, he was getting beaten, and yea, he was going to lose, no question, but he was getting hit much LESS than in earlier parts of the fight.

Fighters rate pride and dignity above their health all the time. Basically every time they get into the ring. There are limits, clearly, but if the 9th wasn't the time to stop it then the 12th certainly wasn't.

 

Cotto definitely deserved to finish but he was just taking too many punches, he was given a champion's chance since round 9 and it was obvious Pac's team told him to cool it down the first minute and a half of rounds since round 9 because the other half Cotto would be on the defensive trying to survive. In round 12 Pac was clearly told to keep firing from start to finish and Bayless saw it coming. Cotto was taking far too much damage at that point, it's when you're dead tired, bleeding heavily and hurt taking punches is what affects a fighter's career/life.

 

make_the_weight makes good valid pts but safety of the fighter is the most important one

 

They should have let him finish. The punch he was TKO'ed by was not as hard as the previous ones.

 

It was a good stoppage, if my mind serves me right, Pacquiao had Cotto on the ropes in the 12th round anyways and that would've been disastrous.

 

Pac was going to stop Cotto anyway. It saved Cotto a lot of punishment.

 

Yeah I think also manny might have actually stopped cotto ala froch vs Taylor because he had grown frustrated with cotto running but he would have had to catch him too. It kinda shoes perhaps manny took a breather in the 10th from running and swinging

but what you notice a few times between the 10-12th is manny catches cotto once or twice then cotto still dodges, I don't know if you guys remember one combo manny hit cotto then cotto dodged and manny was punching the actual ropes! And then cotto ran off lol

but even IMO it a bad stoppage we don't see the ref's view and he is the closest to the action bar the actual fighters

 

Good stoppage. Manny actually took the peddle off the gas around 10 or 11 rounds. at 12 he looked at the ref like are you seriouly want him to finish. Pac tried to give Bayless a reason and the ref took it.

 

I remember that! He did look at the ref as to say O.K I'll keep going if your not gonna stop it. If Bayless didnt stop it, I think he would of went down anyway!

 

Santiago has a huge bet for the fight going the distance. Cottos dad came up and told Jorge that he would foot the winnings

 

Agreed!

 

cotto deserved a decision loss it because of his courage and toughness through the middle of the 12th, but pac deserved the KO because it should have legitimately been over around the 10th. one could look at it either way.

 

Deserve doesn't have anything to do with it.

 

It should have been stopped 3 rounds ealier. But with a minute left there was no point. And let me clarify something here. Is not that Cotto corner didn't know what to do. The problem with Cotto corner is that Miguel Cotto is the boss. He has no trainer, he has assistants. Nobody move a finger unless Cotto says so. Nobody corrects his flaws either. You cannot win fights like that.