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Countdown To Mayweather-Pacquiao: What Was Manny Pacquiao’s Signature Fight?
There are two types of show-stopping performances we’ve seen from many great fighters in which their performance on that given night are forever instilled into our memory. In order for their showing to really count, they must have achieved it against another formidable foe who wasn’t undersized, old and had to have been considered special or elite going into the bout. The signature showing for all great fighters must be forged against another great or near-great who is seen as their equal.
The first type of show stopping performance is the brutal knockout, especially if it occurs early in the bout ie: Thomas Hearns pulverizing Roberto Duran with a single right hand in the second round. The other type of eye- catching performance is the one where a fighter delivers a systematic beat-down over the opponent and the longer the fight goes the worse it gets ie: Bernard Hopkins dismantling Felix Trinidad before finally finishing him in the 12th round.
Manny Pacquiao 57-5-2 (38) has had a career littered with signature and near signature performances over the last decade. He looked terrific beating Marco Antonio Barrera the two times they fought. After being out-boxed by Erik Morales the first time they met, he came back and stopped him twice during their rematch and rubber match. He beat up and punched around David Diaz at will, annihilated a washed up Oscar De La Hoya, pulverized Ricky Hatton, spooked Josha Clottey into being afraid to throw a punch because he didn’t want to leave himself open and vulnerable to Pacquiao’s counter attack, and he took the bigger and stronger Antonio Margarito to boxing school.
That alone is hall of fame worthy and quite impressive, but that isn’t all of it. What’s missing is the one fight in which Pacquiao boxed perfectly, hit with power, put his combinations together beautifully, took the best his opponent had to offer and didn’t even change the expression on his face, and if that weren’t enough, how about how he attacked in the manner of a human buzzsaw and never took his foot off the gas until the end when he looked as if he felt sorry for the beating he doled out during the previous 11 rounds.
The date was 11/14/09, the place was the MGM Grand in Las Vegas Nevada and the opponent was WBO welterweight title-holder Miguel Cotto 34-1 (27).
Cotto, 29 at the time, had only been beaten by Antonio Margarito who some suspect fought Cotto with loaded gloves. A year later Margarito was suspended from boxing for attempting to battle Shane Mosley with compromised gloves. After defending his newly won WBO title against Joshua Clottey, Cotto willingly agreed to defend it against Pacquiao 49-3-2 (37) at the time, in a 145 pound catch-weight bout. Not only was Cotto bigger and stronger than any fighter Pacquiao had ever faced at the time, it was also the belief of many boxing observers that Floyd Mayweather was doing his best version of the two step in order to stay on the other side of the street from where Cotto was.
Prior to the bout I was disenchanted when Pacquiao insisted on the 145 pound catch-weight and felt that Cotto would be hurt by having to shed those last two pounds. But in hindsight Pacquiao was so dominant that it’s unlikely the two pounds would’ve changed the outcome. Before the fight many assumed that Cotto would be too big and strong for Pacquiao, although Manny’s significant edge in hand-speed wasn’t discounted. However, the thought was Cotto could walk him into the corners, and then beat on his body with his vaunted hooks. And once that began to be a regular occurrence Manny would be slowed to a walk and would eventually become a sitting duck for Miguel to beat on and probably stop late in the fight.
Unfortunately for Cotto, he crossed paths with Pacquiao on a night that he put it all together and he may have never been better or fought more purposefully. As it turned out, Cotto’s walk-in style combined with his lack of speed was just right for Manny. Pacquiao’s blinding hand and foot speed along with his imaginative offensive assault, throwing punches in combination of five and six, totally befuddled Miguel. So much so that Cotto never had a clue from where the next punch was coming from. And if that weren’t enough, Pacquiao brought incredibly consistent power on that night. He had Miguel hurt and bloodied and after putting him down in the third and fourth rounds, Cotto came out and emptied his wagon and won the next round and kept Pacquiao from ending the fight early. And that’s what made the win so special for Pacquiao because Cotto definitely wasn’t shot or fighting from memory. He may not have been vintage Cotto, but it’s hard to imagine any other welterweight dominating Miguel like that. In fact no one has before or since.
However, Cotto’s gallant stand in the fifth round was about it for him as far as big moments in the fight. From the sixth round on Pacquiao out-thought and fought Cotto for the remainder of the bout and it was hard to watch at times because it was so decisive, it was almost scary. By the last third of the bout Cotto was almost flinching whenever Pacquiao feinted. It got to the point to where you could see Cotto really didn’t want to let his hands go because he knew it left him open to exchanges, and he was getting the worst of it nine out of ten times. In the 12th round the fight was stopped and no one who saw it will forget how great Pacquiao was that night against such a formidable and dangerous opponent.
It wasn’t so much that Pacquiao out-boxed and out-sped Cotto. What was so off-the-chart impressive was how he broke his will and by the midpoint of the fight Cotto was fighting as if he were the smaller man. And that’s something no fighter has ever done to Cotto before or after he fought Pacquiao. For Pacquiao to be able to dominate and break the will of the bigger Cotto, who was seen as a true ring warrior going into the fight, was truly remarkable. If you want to make a case for Pacquiao as an all-timer, you don’t have to look further than this fight. He looked like Roberto Duran on this night.
On the night Manny Pacquiao stopped Miguel Cotto, the realization of his greatness exceeded the expectation of it.
Frank Lotierzo can be contacted at GlovedFist@Gmail.com
How good is Bakhodir Jalolov? Some would argue that in terms of pure talent, the six-foot-seven southpaw from Uzbekistan who has knocked out all 14 of his opponents since turning pro, is better than any heavyweight you can name. Others say that this can’t possibly be true or his braintrust wouldn’t keep feeding him junk food. Jalolov has been brought along as gingerly as Christopher Lovejoy who was exposed as a fraud after running up a skein of 19 straight fast knockouts,
One thing that’s indisputable is that Jalolov was one of the best amateurs to come down the pike in recent memory. A three-time Olympian and two-time gold medalist, Jalolov won 58 of his last 59 amateur bouts. The exception was a match in which he did not compete which translated into a win by walkover for his opponent, countryman Lazizbek Mullojonov.
The circumstances are vague. Was Jalolov a no-show because of an injury or illness or a technicality? Amateur boxing, save in a few places or in an Olympic year, is the quintessential niche sport. The mainstream media does not cover it.
What we do know, thanks to boxrec, is that Jalolov caught up with Mullojonov in May of last year in the Russian Far East city of Khabarovsk and won a split decision. And Mollojonov was no slouch. He too won a gold medal at the Paris Games, winning the heavyweight division to give the powerful Uzbekistan contingent the championship in the two heaviest weight classes.
Jalolov, whose late father was a champion free-style wrestler, has answered the bell as a pro for only 35 rounds. The Belgian-Congolese campaigner Jack Mulowayi came closest to taking the big Uzbek the distance, lasting into the eighth round of an 8-round fight. But when Jalolov closed the show, he did it with a highlight reel knockout, knocking Mulowayi into dreamland with a vicious left hook.
The KO was reminiscent of Jalolov’s most talked-about win as an amateur, his first-round blast-out of Richard Torrez Jr at a tournament in Ekaterinburg, Russia, in 2019. Torrez, knocked out cold with a left hook, left the ring on a stretcher and was removed to a hospital for evaluation.
This was the first AIBA-sanctioned international tournament in which pros were allowed to compete and WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman was incensed, calling the match-up “criminal” in a tweet that was widely circulated. (Jalolov then had six pro fights under his belt.) They would meet again in the finals of the Tokyo Olympiad with the Uzbek winning a unanimous decision.
Perhaps there will be a third meeting down the road. When Jared Anderson was roughed-up and stopped by Martin Bakole, Torrez Jr (currently 12-0, 11 KOs) vaulted ahead of him on the list of the top home-grown American heavyweights. But Torrez Jr, a short-armed heavyweight who overcomes his physical limitations with a windmill offense, would be a heavy underdog should they ever meet again.
Bakhodir Jalolov’s last bout before heading off to Paris was against the obscure South African Chris Thompson. His match on Thursday at the Montreal Casino in Montreal pits him against an obscure 33-year-old Frenchman, David Spilmont.
Spilmont’s last two opponents were the same guy, an undersized Lithuanian slug who has lost 36 of his 41 documented fights. It seems almost inevitable that Spilmont will suffer the same fate as Thompson who was KOed in the first round.
There’s talk that Jalolov doesn’t really care how far he advances at the professional level; that he has his sights set on the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles where he would have an opportunity to become only the fourth boxer to win three Olympic gold medals, joining the immortal Teofilo Stevenson, Hungarian legend Laszlo Papp, and Cuban standout Felix Savon. Were he to accomplish the hat trick, they would build monuments to him in Uzbekistan. But, if that is his mindset, he’s skating on thin ice. There’s no guarantee that boxing will be on the docket at the Los Angeles Games and, if so, the powers-that-be may choose to roll back the calendar to the days when the competition was off-limits to anyone with professional experience.
While it’s true that Jalolov needs to work off some rust, a pox on promoter Camille Estephan and his enabler, the Quebec Boxing Commission, for not dredging up a more credible opponent than the grossly overmatched David Spilmont.
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Jalolov vs. Spilmont is ostensibly the co-feature. The main event is a 10-round junior welterweight clash between Movladdin “Arthur” Biyarslanov (17-0, 14 KOs) and Spilmont stablemate Mohamed Mimoune (24-6, 5 KOs). Undefeated light heavyweights Albert Ramirez and Mehmet Unal will appear in separate bouts on the undercard. The Feb. 6 event, currently consisting of seven bouts, will air in the U.S. on ESPN+ starting at 6:30 p.m. ET / 3:30 p.m. PT.
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Claressa Shields blasted her way to the undisputed heavyweight championship and nearly knocked out challenger Danielle Perkins in the final seconds, but settled for a win by unanimous decision on Sunday.
Yes, she can punch.
“I just feel overwhelmed and so happy.” Shields said.
Shields (16-0, 3 KOs) proved that even the super athletic Perkins (5-1, 2 KOs), a true heavyweight, could not stop her from becoming an undisputed world champion in a third weight division at Dort Arena in Flint, Michigan, her home town.
In the opening round it was easy to see the size difference. Shields calmly measured Perkins long right jabs then countered with rocket rights through the guard. The speed was evident in Shield’s punches. Perkins used jabs to work her way in but was caught with counters.
“That girl was strong as hell,” said Shields describing Perkins.
Perkins, a southpaw, was somewhat confident that she was the stronger puncher and the stronger fighter overall. But when Shields connected with 10 rocket overhand rights in the third round the power moved Perkins several feet backward.
Suddenly, Perkins realized that indeed Shields has power.
Perkins became more cautious with her approaches. Though the true heavyweight was not frozen in fear, she was wary about getting caught flush with Shields rights. But bullet jabs and lightning combinations still rained on Perkins.
Finding a way to nullify Shields speed was crucial for Perkins.
The former basketball player Perkins continually proved her athleticism with agile moves here and there, but Shields just was superior in every way.
When Perkins became focused too much on the right, a Shields left hook caught the New York native flush. Suddenly there was another Shields weapon to worry about.
Many critics of Shields had focused on her lack of knockouts. But in her previous fight against another heavyweight, the two-time Olympic gold medalist surprised Vanessa Lepage-Joanisse with knockout power. It’s the same power Shields showed Perkins as if firing a fast ball by powering her right with leverage by using her left leg to produce momentum and an explosive punch.
In the 10th and final round Shields and Perkins exchanged blows. Perkins was looking to connect with one of her power shots when suddenly Shields countered with a perfectly timed right to the chin and down went Perkins with about 10 seconds remaining. She beat the count to finish the round.
“I showed I was the bigger puncher and better boxer,” said Shields. “I knew I could do it because I’m really strong at heavyweight.”
All three judges favored Shields 100-89, 99-90 and 97-92.
It was another convincing performance by Shields. So what is next for the best female fighter pound for pound?
“I want to fight Franchon Crews, Hanna Gabriels,” said Shields also naming a few others. “Flint, (Michigan) I love you all so much.”
Other Bouts
A heavyweight clash saw why there is a rule against holding. Brandon Moore (17-1) and Skylar Lacy (8-1-2) punched and held throughout their eight rounds. Referee Steve Willis finally disqualified Lacy when he tackled Moore and took him through the ropes and on to table below.
No, holding and clinching is not part of the fight game. Now you know why.
Moore was ruled the winner by disqualification due to unsportsmanlike conduct by Lacy at 1:35 of the eighth. No need to describe the fight.
A battle between undefeated welterweights saw Joseph Hicks (12-0, 8 KOs) stop Keon Papillon (10-1-1, 7 KOs) at 1:35 of the seventh round. Hicks stunned Papillon at the end of the sixth, then unloaded in the seventh round to force a stoppage.
Joshua Pagan (12-0) out-battled Ronal Ron (16-8) over eight rounds to win the lightweight match by unanimous decision.
Samantha Worthington (11-0) defeated Vaida Masiokaite (10-27-6) by decision after eight rounds in a super lightweight bout.
Featherweight Caroline Veyre (9-1) out-boxed the shorter Carmen Vargas (5-3-1) to win by decision after six rounds.
Super bantamweight Asheleyann Lozada (1-0) won her pro debut by unanimous decision over Denise Moran (3-1) in a four-round fight.
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David Benavidez showed fans why they call him “El Monstro” as he plowed through Cuba’s heavy-punching David Morrell to retain a number one ranking in the light heavyweight division by unanimous decision on Saturday.
Not even a flash knockdown for Morrell could make a difference.
Phoenix native Benavidez (30-0, 24 KOs) gave Morrell (11-1, 9 KOs) his first loss as a professional in front of more than 15,000 fans at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. No one needed to hear the judge’s decision.
“I prepared for everything. I know he’s a great fighter,” said Benavidez. “I thought he was going to hit harder, but he didn’t.”
Before the fight, Morrell was almost an even bet according to oddsmakers, but that was not the case once the fight commenced.
Immediately Benavidez pounded the body and exposed the weaknesses of Morrell’s peek-a-boo defense by using his own left glove to push down the Cuban’s guard. Then immediately firing a crushing right to the jaw.
For the first four rounds Benavidez pounded away on the left and right side of Morrell’s body. And when the openings came the uppercuts caught Morrell’s chin. But he absorbed the blows.
Morrell didn’t waver in trying to find a solution. Though Benavidez connected often to the body and head, the Cuban fighter who moved up from super middleweight displayed a very solid chin.
In the fourth round during a furious exchange Morrell beat Benavidez to the punch that stunned him momentarily. But the blow seemed to spark outrage and a storm of blows followed from Benavidez.
It must have seemed like a nightmare for Morrell.
At times the Cuban fighter would connect perfectly with a right hook and pause. Then Benavidez would return fire with massive blows.
The look on Morrell’s face bore traces of disappointment.
As the rounds continued Benavidez became emboldened by his success. Soon the Mexican Monster began launching lead right uppercuts through Morrell’s guard especially in the sixth round.
“He was easier to hit than I expected,” Benavidez said.
During the breaks Morrell’s corner asked him to pressure Benavidez. It was a fruitless suggestion. How do you corner a Monster?
Benavidez continued to stalk Morrell who never stopped swinging but could not seem to hurt the Monster. In the 11th round Morrell managed to catch Benavidez perfectly with a right hook and down went Benavidez. He immediately got up and the two fighters unloaded on each other. Morrell fired one punch after the bell and was deducted a point by referee Thomas Taylor. That negated the extra point gained from the knockdown.
“I wasn’t really hurt,” said Benavidez. “That bullshit knockdown caught me off-balance.”
The final round saw both resume their efforts to knock the other out. Both showed great chins and the ability to trade. Benavidez was simply better. Even Morrell didn’t wait for the decision to be read as he raised the arm of the Monster at the final bell. All three judges scored in favor of Benavidez 115-111 twice and 118-108.
“He knows this is Monstro’s world. Big shout out for Morrell, he’s a tough fighter,” Benavidez said.
Other Bouts
In a fight dedicated to honor the late Israel Vazquez, the ultimate Aztec warrior, super lightweights Isaac “Pitbull” Cruz (27-3-1) and Angel Fierro (23-3-2) battled like demons for 10 nonstop rounds. Cruz was ruled the winner by unanimous decision.
With little resemblance of defense, Cruz and Fierro whacked each other relentlessly with shots that might have stopped a moving car. Cruz was tagged by a right cross on the top of the head that staggered him momentarily. Fierro was driven back four feet by an overhand right to the chin early in the fight.
Both fighters took cruel and unusual punishment and never wavered more than a few seconds. It was brutal war and fans were the winners after 10 rounds of violent and savage action.
All three judges saw Cruz the winner 96-94, 97-93, 98-92.
“I’m so happy I gave the fans a great fight,” Cruz said.
Fulton Wins
Stephen Fulton (23-1, 8 KOs) defeated Brandon Figueroa (23-2-1, 19 KOs) again and took the WBC featherweight title by unanimous decision after 12 rounds. He had previously defeated Figueroa in 2021 for the WBC and WBO super bantamweight titles.
Most of the action took place in nose-to-nose fashion where Fulton landed the cleaner shots especially with uppercuts. Figueroa had his moments but was unable to hurt the challenger who lost to Naoya Inoue by knockout 17 months ago.
Fulton landed clean shots but as his record shows he lacks the power with only eight knockouts on his record. But Figueroa was unable to hurt or knock down Fulton. After 12 rounds all three judges saw Fulton win by scores of 116-112 twice and 117-111,
“It feels good. I’m champion again,” said Fulton.
Ramos Wins
Jesus Ramos (22-1, 18 KOs) won by technical knockout over former world champion Jeison Rosario (24-5-2) in the eighth round of a middleweight fight. Both fighters attacked the body but by the sixth round Ramos was the busier fighter and began to dominate the fight. At 2:18 of the eighth round referee Robert Hoyle stopped the fight.
“I like to throw a lot of body punches. It’s kind of my style,” said Ramos.
Photos credit: Al Applerose
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Undercard Results from Las Vegas where Mirco Cuello Saved his Best for Last
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Hall of Fame Boxing Writer Michael Katz (1939-2025) Could Wield His Pen like a Stiletto
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Featured Articles4 weeks agoR.I.P. Paul Bamba (1989-2024): The Story Behind the Story
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Featured Articles4 weeks agoJai Opetaia Brutally KOs David Nyika, Cementing his Status as the World’s Top Cruiserweight
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