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Two great warriors locking horns on Nov. 14, one would wonder who’s going to emerge victorious come fight night?
Both fighters are training really hard and appear on schedule with their conditioning.
The biggest factor could be the teams that help prepare the protagonists for the biggest fight of the year.
All we watch, read, and hear from the media are that both teams are going well as planned, except from the distractions within Team Pacquiao, like the internal feud from his entourage and the 2 typhoons that swept Luzon in a span of a week.
But that is all water under the bridge now.
Assuming everything will be equal, fighters Pacquiao vs Cotto, cutmen Miguel Diaz vs Joe Chavez and conditioning coaches Alex Ariza vs Phil Landman.
The fight’s going to be a toss up.
But there’s a striking factor that we can’t miss on, Freddie Roach vs Joe Santiago.
Roach’s been working Pacquiao’s corner for 8 years and 20 fights. He has worked with multiple world champions like Mike Tyson, James Toney, the Klitschkos, Israel Vasquez, Dela Hoya and Hopkins just to name some.
Imagine the experience that this man has working with these top notch fighters. The guy has never given in to pressure. The guy’s calm and collected during fights, winning or losing.
Joe Santiago is only on his second fight as a head trainer. He assumed the top post on Team Cotto when former trainer and Uncle Evangelista Cotto left the team. His first fight was with Joshua Clottey in summer last year.
He was a sports nutritionist with a PhD in sports science. We still don’t know how he would react in the corner in a fight of this magnitude. It’s only his second and it’s already a superfight.
Being in a Pacquiao fight is way too different from a fight against Clottey. New York watched that fight. This time it’s the world who is watching his every move.
On this scenario you would clearly know who’s got the advantage. Assuming all other factors are equal.
One other thing that caught my attention was the quality and quantity of sparring partners.
For his upcoming fight with Cotto, Pacquiao has sparred with former world champion Jose Luis “El Temible” Castillo, 35 (60-9-1, with 52 KOs), Shawn Porter, 22 (10-0, with 8 KOs), Urbano Antillon, 27 (26-1, with 19 KOs), up and comer Danny Escobar, 20 (3-0, with 3 KOs), Raymundo “Sugar” Beltran, 28 (22-4, with 14 KOs) and Rashad Holloway, 28 (11-1-2, with 5 KOs).
The sparmates are a mix of welterweights, lightweights and a lightmiddleweight. A mix of speed, movement and power. All bases covered.
While Cotto’s sparmates were Welterweight Fred Tukes, 36, has a 7-1-1 record, with only 5 KOs, Lighweight Kenny Abril, 25, has a 9-3-1 record, also with only 5 KOs.
The bright side in his camp was sparmate Francisco "Gato" Figueroa, 31 (20-3-1, with 13 KOs ) who’s quick and throws punches in angles and is a southpaw like Pacquiao was fired after a week in camp and the speculation was he made Cotto look bad.
Team Cotto said that he wasn’t serious enough in training camp. Figueroa later admitted in a boxing website that he tried to fight like Pacquiao that made Miguel frustrated during sparring sessions that resulted for him leaving camp.
Fights are won in the ring by the fighter but preparations and strategy will nail it for the boxer.
That’s what separates good fighters from the best fighter in the world.
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