Manny Pacquiao and Miguel Cotto Have Been Keeping Boxing Alive

(Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

“We aren't in an information age, we are in an entertainment age.” —Tony Robbins

Right now everyone is talking about the highly anticipated super mega matchup between the top welterweight champion Miguel Cotto and the No. 1 pound-for-pound champion in the world, Manny Pacquiao.

These two fighters are by far the most exciting big names in the sport of boxing. I will even be so bold as to say that these two fighters have been the reason why boxing is even still alive today. Both of these pugilists have what it takes to win over the masses of casual fans and even ignorant close-minded fans that boxing needs to be back on top of the world.

First off, both of these fighters have huge legions of fans because they are exciting. They do not duck anyone. They fight frequently. They do not resort to trash talking or ridiculous publicity stunts to promote their careers. They are the bottom line of entertaining.

Unfortunately, my favorite sport, boxing, has been in the decline for about the last decade or so. It has not been on the worldwide stage level as it was when the great Muhammad Ali was boxing, or even in the 1980s when Sugar Ray Leonard was taking on Hagler, Hearns, and Duran.

All of these fighters I mentioned are legends and rightfully deserve their icon status in history, for they all entertained us. They did not bore the life out of us with 12-round technical decisions where you just thanked god that the fight was finally over. They made us jump to our feet, thirsting for more.

In the early 2000s when the great Roy Jones Jr. reigned supreme as the pound-for-pound champion of the world, he knew that boxing was dying and that was one of the main reasons why he went up to heavyweight to dethrone WBA Heavyweight champion John Ruiz for all the fans and to try to save the sport of boxing.

After Roy's rematch loss to Tarver coming back down in weight to the light heavyweight division in 2004 many considered Bernard Hopkins the new pound-for-pound champion of the world. This was the final straw for many of the casual and ignorant fans turning their backs on the sport of boxing.

When a casual ignorant fan tunes into boxing and sees that the No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter Hopkins does not do much for the first half of his fights and then barely does enough to pull a win after 12 rounds of holding, head butting, turning his back to his opponent, and throwing an average of single digits punchout puts per round that profoundly weaves out the casual ignorant fans and only leaves the very hardcore, educated, disciplined, and patient boxing fans to stick around.

Enter Miguel Cotto, the most exciting up and coming 140-pound fighter since the great Kosta Tszyu and the biggest star to hail from Puerto Rico since Tito Trinidad. He had a monster left hook that he could repeatedly destroy his opponents with shots to the body or head nonstop like it was a video game.

Cotto even took the extra step to learn English as he knew it would help his career tremendously if he learned the language and began to conduct his interviews to expand his fanbase.

The one fight that won me over as a fan for life of Cotto was his brutal war with heavy handed Ricardo Torres. In this fight both Cotto and Torres stood toe to toe for seven rounds.

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