Luis Ramos, of Frank Espinoza’s “Espinoza Boxing Club”, is already looked upon as one of the hottest young prospects in boxing. After a decorated amateur career spanning more than 100 fights and 6 national championships, Ramos turned to the professional ranks in late 2007. Having already built an impressive record of 16 wins, 8 coming by way of knockout, Ramos’ following in the Southern California area is impressive, to say the least. Ramos is never in a dull fight, and fights with a crowd-pleasing style. Keep an eye on Ramos in the near future, as his next scheduled bout is set to be televised on Telefutura on September 17, 2010, from Los Angeles, California.
For Manny Pacquiao, it is about being the pride and honor of a country that regards him as a national hero. His abrupt rise to super-stardom can do very little to erase memories of his humble beginnings. Loaded in each glove are the dreams of millions of Filipinos whose hopes are represented by the depth of his courage.
For Miguel Cotto, the pride of Caguas, Puerto Rico, power is about walking in the footsteps left by those before him from a nation with a rich Boxing past. For the well-being of his family, strength is manifested and is carried with every punch he throws be it a textbook jab or a crushing left hook to the body.
In Boxing, the power of a fighter’s punch can be measured by the trail of fallen opponents he leaves in his wake. What makes the main event on November 14th so interesting is that both fighters are known to be very hard punchers. Both carry the weight of their home countries on their shoulders. Both have the heart of true ring warriors. And although power can be measured by the way a fighter ends a fight, for Pacquiao and Cotto, the similarities of their strengths end there.
Since his career began in 2001, Miguel Cotto has bulldozed his way in and around the Welterweight division defeating elite fighters and legends of the ring all while establishing his own. He is without question, one of the hardest body punchers in the sport and has been so for the past decade. He has scored knockdowns and tallied knockouts with hard shots to the midsection. He is a fighter that likes to break his opponent down throughout the course of a fight, sapping every last bit of energy before relentlessly applying the finishing touches. The end result is a 34 win record, 27 of which did not hear the sound of the final bell.
Standing on the opposite side of the ring however, he will meet a man with unrivaled speed and crushing knockout power. Meet Manny Pacquiao, who was a nightmare matchup for any fighter in the lower weight divisions. From Bantamweight to Super Featherweight, he was a beast that started a fight out strong but ended it even stronger. He throws plenty and with a purpose. Over the past couple of years, he’s taken his heavy fists to the higher weight classes, and what he found there was the same type of domination he had grown accustomed to, as if he was a natural at his newfound weight class.
The power of a punch is made up of the weight behind it and the speed at which it travels. Considering this equation, I cringe at the thought in my head whenever I think of a body shot landing on Pacquiao’s small frame and historically weak abdomen. If there’s one place to hit Pacquiao, it would have to be at his body, and Cotto is one helluva body puncher. To be effective, Cotto has to somehow force Pacquiao into the ropes and keep him there while dishing out the pain, all in hopes of breaking down ‘The Pacman’ and weakening him as the fight progresses.
Of course, this is easier said than done. Pacquiao, because of his amazing foot speed, is incredibly nimble and elusive. The moment he feels the ropes touch his back he will spin and scuffle and take the fight right back to the center of the ring – a tactic both he and Freddie Roach have developed and deployed since he brutalized David Diaz in his 135 pound debut.
The question for Pacquiao is, will the same power he used to rearrange Oscar Dela Hoya’s face and nearly murder Ricky Hatton affect Cotto, who comfortable at Welterweight withstood punches from arguably the hardest puncher in his division? He doesn’t deserve the doubt but he receives it nonetheless. That’s where we place the question mark, there is no doubt that Cotto can definitely hurt Pacquiao if he connects, the difference in size almost guarantees that but can Pacquiao do the same to Cotto?
Of course power is nothing without accuracy. That’s where Boxing comes into play and while Miguel Cotto does seem to have an advantage over his opponent in this category, under the tutelage of Freddie Roach, Pacquiao has transformed from being a wild, raw slugger into a polished boxer-puncher. So expect a level of accuracy from both men. Cotto has the obvious advantage in power given his huge size advantage, but as proven in the past, the Filipino’s power should never be underestimated. Advantage: SLIGHTLY IN FAVOR OF COTTO, BUT PRETTY MUCH EVEN.
Speed has played a key role in Boxing all throughout the history of the sport. More often than not, fighters who possess this God-given attribute enjoy a significant advantage in the ring. It is a quality that if used properly could spell the difference between winning and losing. In the past, fighters like Leonard, Tyson and Ali have used their speed to build their legends, dominating their competition with blindingly fast hands and lightness of the feet.
Enter Manny Pacquiao, who in 2003 made his mainstream debut on the Boxing scene by demolishing Mexican ring legend Marco Antonio Barrera. Barrera coming off a great victory against Prince Naseem Hamed, did not know what he was up against until it was too late and he was staring at Pacquiao’s fiery red trunks from the view flat on his back. Pacquiao would later on blitz Morales, Marquez, Diaz, Dela Hoya and Hatton en route to his perch on the top of Boxing’s mythical ‘Pound-for-Pound’ rankings.
Speed has always been Pacquiao’s bread and butter, his main weapon, and it is obvious that Freddie Roach and an entire nation is banking on it come November 14th. It’s not only obvious to Team Pacquiao, but also to the entire world including Pacquiao’s opponent Miguel Cotto. What should be noted here however, is that Roach was not only referring to hand speed when asked how his fighter will come out victorious, but moreso, foot speed which people tend to forget about. Pacquiao is extremely light of foot and agile, he has a very awkward style with his back and forth swaying and side to side head movement. He fights on his toes, darting in and throwing five to six punch combinations and effectively moving out of harm’s way when his opponent fires back. Pacquiao’s ability to do this will be key in defeating Miguel Cotto who just does not have the physical tools to keep up with him. What makes things worse for Cotto is that Pacquiao uses his speed efficiently, pacing and carrying it for the full twelve rounds tiring and breaking down his opponent throughout the fight.
There is however, a counter for speed, an answer that Miguel Cotto is surely more than capable of deploying. Speed, no matter how fast, can be countered by timing. With a good, strong, well-timed jab, Cotto can stop Pacquiao’s assault even before he is able to unleash a combination. Cotto has had success with this in the past, using his superior Boxing skills he was able to defeat speedy fighters in both ‘Sugar’ Shane Mosley and Zab ‘Super’ Judah. His jab is also not thrown as a range-finder as some boxers like to do, but rather as a weapon as it should be noted that Cotto’s dominant hand is his left, even if he fights in an orthodox stance. In Cotto’s last fight, he put Joshua Clottey on his back with a well timed left jab and if he can catch Pacquiao with one of those, it will not only hurt him but score points with the judges as well.
How effective will Cotto’s timing be against Pacquiao’s speed? The answer is only weeks away. Out of all Pacquiao’s fights in the past ten years, only Juan Manuel Marquez was able to have success at timing Pacquiao. This tells us that it takes a master technician to be effective against him. Though Cotto is far from being a ‘master technician’, he does have the tools to be somewhat successful against the Filipino’s overwhelming quickness and pressure, but I’m sure there is no doubt who has the advantage here. If Pacquiao is able to use his speed effectively, Cotto will be in for a very, very long night. Advantage: PACQUIAO
Last night we got a glimpse of what has basically been going on in both camps via HBO’s 24/7. It is obvious that HBO wants to exaggerate the suspected turmoil in Team Pacquiao by showing us every bit of conflict that they can gather with a Manny Pacquiao that seems to be taking the fight very lightly all the while showing a very serious Miguel Cotto in very serious training. But don’t believe everything you see on TV, HBO has a perfect marketing formula in the form of its award winning series and they can pretty much sell ice to Eskimos at this point (see Mayweather-Marquez). But even without HBO’s influence, which makes for great drama, the fight on November 14th will be nothing like the blatant mismatch that we saw last month, this we’ve all agreed on even before the contract was signed between the two prize fighters.
Taking what we are given by HBO however, Cotto looks really good and seems to be pacing himself well in preparation for Pacquiao. Cotto already looks huge and will most likely enjoy a very significant size advantage that unlike Dela Hoya and Hatton before him, he’ll actually use. Along with his great ring generalship and polished boxing skills, his ability to take Welterweight power punching and absorb it with his full Welterweight frame will be one of the biggest advantages he will have coming into the fight and I’m not so sure Manny will be able to hurt Miguel.
We all know the Filipino has power, now in both hands, but we place that in question because simply put, Miguel Cotto is the biggest fighter he will ever face. If we are to look back at Pacquiao’s fight with Dela Hoya, we will notice that though Dela Hoya did eat a lot of punches, Pacquiao was never really able to put him in danger of a knockout. In hindsight, Dela Hoya most likely quit on his stool not because he could no longer continue physically, but because he wanted to save himself the embarrassment of not finding an answer to Pacquiao’s vaunted attack. This should cause alarm amongst Pacquiao’s supporters, that his power may not be enough to affect Miguel Cotto, specially a Cotto that trained well enough to absorb a punch even from a fist loaded with plaster.
That being said, how many times have we doubted Pacquiao whenever he faced someone of caliber? Taking on seemingly very difficult tasks looks to be the norm for this little dude, and that’s more than we can say for some fighters out there who claim to be the best but never fight the best. Pacquiao’s fists of fury have proven time and time again that there are bombs hidden in those gloves of his and if it is enough to bring Cotto down, then the sky is the limit for him. I still stand by my early prediction that Pacquiao will cut Cotto up pretty bad and cruise to a unanimous decision after twelve great rounds, but I am very open to being surprised and being wowed come fight night, by both men.
Episode 1 of 24/7 was, in my opinion, a bit of a mess. The pace was way off, the drama wasn’t built up like in previous installments and gone was the spectacular finish we all know and love. I’m still eager to see episode 2 and wish they’d show more of the two in training, particularly sparring bits between Shawn Porter and Manny Pacquiao. Porter is a prospect yes, but a very good one and from what I’ve heard, he’s been giving Pacquiao some trouble. This should really help Pacquiao in preparation for Cotto. When it comes down to it, training does play a huge role in the fight and for Cotto, he will have to work on his stamina if he wants to be able to keep up with Pacquiao’s frenetic pace.
But speculate is all we can really do right now until the next episode airs in about a week or so, or until a new development comes up. In all probability, barring any catastrophic camp distractions, I say both fighters come to the fight at their absolute best and give us an all out war. Here’s to hoping they do.
Fight Camp 360 is Showtime’s own reality series inside its highly anticipated Super Six World Boxing Classic. This unique series focuses on the fighters, their camps, and the conclusions of each bout. Fight Camp 360 is produced in conjunction with NFL Films compiling footage from the initial press conference to the commencement of the tournament and it’s Championship Bout. Six episodes, six fighters, five promoters, eighteen months of high drama!
The debut episode, which aired on Showtime October 10, takes viewers behind the scenes and behind the concept of the tournament. Ken Hershman, VP of Showtime Sports, explains the complexity of putting together a single fight and the enormous task of making a tournament happen with five different promoters. Viewers get a glimpse to see first hand what goes into making the Super Six a reality. Episode one includes short interviews with the promoters: Dan Goosen, Mick Hennessy, Lou Dibella, Kalle Sauerland and Gary Shaw.
The series is narrated by Bill James and uses NFL Films trademark storytelling. Episode one follows Carl Froch to England where he makes plans to celebrate, and to Big Bear, California inside the training camp of Andre Dirrell. Fight 360 finds Jermain Taylor in Houston Texas preparing for Arthur Abraham and battling stamina issues exposed during previous losses. While Abraham is shown at home in Berlin very cool and confident, chatting with fans, and talking about his boxing inspiration Mike Tyson.
Episode one concludes with the promoters hashing and rehashing details and the tournament structure. Fight 360 is a great way to feature the fighters of Showtime’s super middleweight tournament without being a carbon copy of HBO’s 24/7. Group Stage One begins Oct 17th with Froch vs Dirrell and Abraham vs Taylor. Fight 360 will re-air on SHO2 check your local listings.
We had a chance to sit down with Kermit Cintron as he talks about his upcoming fight next week in Puerto Rico against Juliano Ramos. What really got our attention was the Cintron vs Margarito fights. Kermit said after the second fight with him, he went back to the dressing room and told his people that he had never been hit that hard in his life. We asked him what his first reaction was when Sugar Shane Mosley’s people exposed Antonio about the loaded handwraps, “I felt that if I saw Margarito in the streets, that I could strangle him”.
Alot of people don’t know James, James is a good kid, he just made some mistakes. In the gym he is good to the kids.
When he get’s out he is going to be dedicated. It’s just his life growing up, he’s always had a hard life, and the streets always pulls him back. You can’t take a pit and try to make him no poodle. You got to make him be a pit but be a tamed pit.
He listens to me when he’s around me but when he’s away from me he kinda strays off.
OSC: We hear HBO made an offer for a rematch between Juan Diaz vs Pauli Malignaggi. Is it going to happen?
WS: I don’t know, maybe 50/50 chance, what it is is that Malignaggi wanted the rematch, but they wanted it in New York at first and no place in New York wanted him, then they tried Alantic City and Connecticut and nobody wanted it. He’s not popular up there either. Now they are saying Chicago, so I don’t have no ideal whether the fight is going to take place or not.
OSC: So the fight is not going to take place in New York?
WS: No, as far as I know, New York is not available. Atleast they could not sell the fight.
OSC: I understand that the purse was up to $750,000.
WS: Yes HBO put up $750,000 and later they made the 2 promoters co-promoters and I’m guessing since the fight is not going to generate a big gate, each promoter took part of the money for themselves to cover them just in case that they would lose. So that made the pot go out a little further. Then it turns out that Malignaggi was going to get a pay raise for what he made in Houston and Juan was going to get a paycut. So I told Juan that isn’t going to work.
OSC: So if Juan was going to fight he was going to have take a paycut and Malignaggi a pay raise?
WS: Yes that is correct.
We caught up to Omar Henry as he has been the talk of the town last week as being a possible sparring opponent for Manny Pacquiao. The big question is when does he leave to go spar Manny or is he? He also talks school, investment, Floyd Mayweather, and Benard Hopkins. This is a must see interview.
