Pacquiao vs. Cotto Yankee Stadium Presser

Posted by Jonathan Yaghoubi on 09.11.2009

A recap of yesterday's press conference, plus Joshua Clottey speaks on Shane Mosley.


Photos by Chris Farina / Top Rank

The march to the biggest fight of 2009 got underway Thursday afternoon as boxing's No.1 pound for pound king, Manny Pacquiao, and the pride of Puerto Rico, Miguel Cotto kicked off a five city coast to coast, two-ocean media tour that begun at New York's Yankee Stadium.

The fight has been promoted as "Firepower" as it will take place on Saturday, November 14th for Cotto's WBO welterweight title and the first-ever WBC diamond belt. Following today's presser at the stadium, their media tour will continue on to Caguas, Puerto Rico, AT&T Park at San Francisco, Beverly Hills, California, and PETCO Park in San Diego. The San Diego Padres have designated Tuesday, Sept15, as Manny Pacquiao Night at Petco Park. Pacquiao will throw out a ceremonial first pitch before the Padres-Diamondbacks game.

Today at the stadium was a day for both fighters to show the media and fans that were in attendance that they are ready for the biggest fight of their careers. A good crowd was on hand to show support for both fighters on their way to the big showdown.

It is a fight that could define both their careers. Both have already impressive resume's as they combine on nine world titles in seven different weight classes between them and a combined record of 93-4-2(64 KOs)- a winning percentage of 93% and a victory by knockout ratio of 77%.

"I will train harder than I have ever trained before because Miguel Cotto will be my toughest test as a professional fighter," said Pacquiao. "I know Miguel Cotto is an excellent fighter and a great world champion."

One of the big issues that delayed the fight was the weight and where it was going to be at. Was it going to be 147? Was it going below that? At the end, a catch weight of 145 pounds was agreed on. Manny seems very comfortable with those terms.

"I am happy that the fight is at 145. But it doesn't matter if I was at 147 pounds," said Pacquiao. "But I feel much better at 145; I am not going to lie about that."

Manny is at an all time high and is fighting at a level right now that can only be as described as "special". His second round destruction of Ricky Hatton was so easy that the talk afterwards was not whether Pacquiao is the best pound for pound fighter in the world, but whether he might be one of the best ever. According to him, the secret to his success can be compared to doing well in school.

"Boxing can be such an easy sport if you train real hard each day and study your opponent every day before the fight", said Pacquiao. "If you train and study the sport as hard as you can, you are going to do very well in boxing. I believe when I study my opponent's strengths and weakness's, it makes me that much better. My speed is my strength over Cotto and I will study real hard to use it to my advantage.

Cotto is an opponent that Pacquiao is going to have some long nights in the film room to study. Cotto will prove to be the strongest test of Manny's career and believes the speed of factor will be nullified when they step into the ring.

"When you have good defense, you can stop any kind of speed," said Cotto. "It does not matter how fast he is, he will see defense like he has never seen before."

Cotto addressed the concerns he might have on fighting at 145, which is the lowest weight he has had to fight with since he fought Paulie Malignaggi at 138 pounds back in December of 2006. Since then, Miguel has fought 8 fights at 147 pounds.

"Fighting at two less pounds is no big deal for me. When I fought Clottey, I was fighting at 146 pounds. I can lose that one pound in 15 minutes."

Cotto seems to still be looking for his astride since his heartbreaking debacle against Antonio Margarito. A win over Pacquiao will erase every single memory from that July night of 2008 and will cement Cotto as one of the great fighters of our era and may shoot to the top of the list as the top pound for pound fighter in the sport. Cotto wants to make sure that Pacquiao knows who he is stepping into the ring with.

"He has fought a lot of tough fighters but never one like me," said Cotto. "The world will know who the best is when we meet in the ring. I know I am going to beat Manny. This is the biggest step in my career and I am training so hard that I know I am going to win this fight."

I had a chance to ask Cotto how he felt about the perception that he might have lost a step after the Clottey fight and might not seem to be the same elite fighter as he was 2-3 years ago.

"I had to fight with a huge cut. My blood mixed in with the grease and it really messed my vision up badly. I had a strong fighter right in front of me so that made it much harder for me," Cotto said. "He had a chance to put me away and put the pressure on me toward the end. But he did not it and in the end, the judges saw what I saw and I was the victor."

While both fighters were talking about their upcoming super fight, Joshua Clottey was on hand and put his two cents on who he thinks will win and on his rumored championship fight with Shane Mosley.

"I feel like Pacquiao will win but it's going to be a tough fight for both guys. If Cotto is going to win, he is going to have to knock him out. If Manny is going to win, it's going to be by decision," Clottey said. I just think Pacquiao is too fast and is such a throwback fighter that his style and speed is too tough to beat right now.

Clottey On Mosley

"The fight is going to happen on December 26th. It's not signed yet but it will happen. I am very excited about this chance. Shane is a very tough and experienced fighter but the way I performed against Cotto, I know Mosley is going to have his hands full."

After their big media tour, both fighters will begin their respective training camps as they enter heavy training for their November 14th show at the MGM Grand Garden in Las Vegas. With an exciting list of fights to take place in the next four months, this is the most anticipated one and it will be a very special event. See you at the fights!