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Pacman (left) is the favourite, but should he be such an overwhelming favourite?
Miguel Cotto has been slapped with the tag of underdog for his bout against Manny Pacquiao in Las Vegas on Saturday night.
A poll on this blog shows that 85% of fans are tipping Pacman to win by stoppage, while a further 7% reckon the Filipino superstar will win on points. By contrast, just 7% are tipping Cotto to win – points or stoppage – and 1% think it will be a draw.
The bookmakers agree that Pacquiao is the favourite, but not to the same degree. Ladbrokes have Pacquiao the favourite at 4/11 while Cotto is an ungenerous 2/1 (not exactly odds that are associated with the world’s biggest underdog). Read More…
David Haye (Right) throws a right hand at Nikolay Valuev. PHOTO: Chris Royle - Hoganphotos/Golden Boy Promotions
When I was a kid growing up in the 1970s, only one Briton had won the world heavyweight championship, and that was Bob Fitzsimmons in the previous century.
Things have changed since then – we’ve seen Lennox Lewis, Herbie Hide, Frank Bruno, and the forgettable Henry Akinwande. Read More…
Freddie Roach enjoys a laugh
Freddie Roach, the ace American trainer of Manny Pacquiao, has already voiced his concern over possible low blows from Miguel Cotto in the super-fight in Las Vegas on November 14.
The business around protector cups is serious indeed, although Roach once recalled a lighter moment relating to when he was in James Toney’s corner some years ago.
Roach told the story during an interview in Johannesburg in May 2004, when he was here with Virgil Hill. He said he arrived in Las Vegas with Toney to fight Evander Holyfield in October 2003 – having forgotten Toney’s protector cup in Los Angeles. Toney was unaware of the missing kit!
Roach bumped into Hill and asked to borrow his cup for Toney, but the problem was that Hill’s was a different colour to Toney’s. “One was red and the other green,” Roach told me in the interview, “but I hoped he wouldn’t notice, that he’d be preoccupied with the fight. In the dressing room I tossed it to him and he looked at it and said: ‘what the f*** is this?’”
Toney, wearing the cup, stopped Holyfield in the ninth round. After the fight, when Roach told him who the cup belonged to, Toney joked: “I hope I didn’t catch something.”
Hill didn’t want the cup back and it ended up in Roach’s Hollywood gym.
The formidable pairing of Pacquiao and Roach - master boxer and master tactician
Manny Pacquiao’s trainer, Freddie Roach, has expressed concern over possible low blows from Miguel Cotto on November 14, saying he wants automatic disqualification for any deliberate shots below the belt (click here to read the story).
Of course, it can be difficult to distinguish between deliberate and accidental shots – especially if the offending boxer knows how to disguise an intentional low blow.
