Blog of Pacquiao's TKO win over Cotto

FOXSports.com boxing editor Steve Bien-Aime live blogged the Manny Pacquiao-Miguel Cotto bout. Here's a recap of Saturday's action. Pacquiao comes out to "Eye of the Tiger" with a big grin on his face. Cotto looks far more measured, entering to a rap song. His face tells the story of a man who knows he's in the biggest fight of his life. Crowd seems to be evenly split of supporters for each fighter. Round 1 Both fighters were pretty cautious. Cotto is landing his jab effectively and so far Pacquiao's speed isn't a problem for Cotto. Pacquiao's swarming style didn't bother Cotto and Cotto is clearly the stronger fighter. Round 2 Pacquiao opens up the offense, landing plenty of combinations. Cotto's jab is still effective, but he didn't throw enough. However, Cotto was able to handle Pacquiao's power, walking through clean shots. Round 3 Pacquiao continues landing combinations, and knocks Cotto down early as Cotto's gloves touch the canvas. But, Cotto rallies well, landing big shots on Pacquiao. I wonder if Pacquiao can continue to take Cotto's best shots as the fight wears on. Round 4 Cotto applies the pressure, trying to avenge the knock down. He works over Pacquiao on the ropes for much of the round. Pacquiao escapes and flurries. He lands a big left that knocks Cotto down again. This time Cotto's whole body hits the canvas. Cotto is lucky there were less than 10 seconds left as he gets up and survives the round. Round 5 Pacquiao's movement is giving him plenty of opportunities to land. However, Cotto is still landing hard, clean shots -- driving Pacquiao into the ropes as well. Even though Pacquiao's ahead, there's still a sense that one big punch can turn this around. Round 6 Now Pacquiao is stalking Cotto. I can't believe it. Pacquiao is landing power punches at will. Cotto just is not throwing his jab enough to keep Pacquiao off him. Late in the round Pacquiao hurts Cotto with another big left. But, Cotto flurries to end the round. Pacquiao has now taken over the fight. Round 7 Cotto looks like a beaten fighter. He isn't throwing enough and Pacquiao is landing some big shots. Instead of using the jab that won him the first round, Cotto is looking to counter. But, there aren't many opportunities for good counter shots. Cotto isn't even landing the hard shots he was earlier. Round 8 Cotto is now being chased to the ropes. He looks fatigued. Pacquiao is hurting him now. Pacquiao doesn't even appear to be worried about Cotto's strength. Pacquiao is putting on a spectacular performance. Round 9 Pacquiao appears to be on the verge of a KO. Cotto is now holding Pacquiao after every big shot. I can't believe Pacquiao's strength at 145. Cotto's face is bloodied and his will looks to be equally as damaged. Round 10 A better effort from Cotto in this round. He threw more jabs and actually used some footwork. However, Pacquiao seemed to take much of the round off. Still, he looked like he still won the round with his controlled frenzies. Round 11 Cotto just wants to finish the fight. Pacquiao is landing big shots in the corner midway through the round, but Cotto escapes. Cotto gets on his bicycle and the crowd boos. I think they don't know he's in the ring with perhaps the best fighter of his generation. Round 12 Cotto doesn't look inclined to fight and Pacquiao is frustrated. However, Pacquiao chases him down and after a big flurry, the referee steps in and stops the fight. Pacquiao wins by TKO.

Undercard

BoxingScene.com provided the recaps for these bouts. Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (41-0-1, 30 KOs) made his middleweight debut, winning a unanimous ten round decision over Troy Rowland (25-3, 7KOs). The scores were 99-91, 98-92, and 97-93. After five close rounds, Chavez began to take over the fight in the sixth. He started to bust Rowland up during that round, swelling up his face and landing bigger punches. During the next couple of rounds, Chavez Jr. used his left hook to the body and power punches to bust Rowland up. The game Rowland never stopped coming and throwing punches. Yuri Foreman (27-0, 8 KOs) won a unanimous 12-round decision over Daniel Santos (32-4-1, 23KOs) to capture the WBA junior middleweight title. The scores were 116-110, 117-109 and 117-109. Foreman became the first fighter from Israel to win a major world title. The first round was close. After hurting Foreman with a hard left in the second, Santos went down a moment later after Foreman caught him off-balance wth a punch to the back of the head. During the fourth, Foreman hurt Santos bad but couldn't finish him off. A clash of heads in the seventh round would send Santos down on his back and open up a cut above the left eye of Foreman. Santos put on 19-pounds from the weigh-in to the fight. The extra weight appeared to hurt him in the contest. He was slow and couldn't stay balanced. Foreman wobbled Santos again in the eight round. Santos suffered a cut above his right eye from a clash of heads in the eleventh. He managed to buckle Foreman at the end of the same round. A left hand on the inside sent Santos down in the twelfth round. Foreman stayed on his feet and boxed to the final bell. In an earlier bout, Alfonso Gomez (21-4-2, 10 KOs) won a six round unanimous techincal decision over Jesus Soto Karass (24-4-3, 16 KOs). The scores were 58-54, 57-55 and 57-55. Gomez was outboxing him and landing the better and crisper shots. In the third a clash of heads opened up a bad cut on the outside of Gomez's right eye. Karass lost a point in rounds three and four for low blows. The cut began to bother Gomez in rounds five and six and Karass started to come on, but it was too late as the fight was stopped in the sixth because of Gomez's bad cut.