Manny Pacquiao and Miguel Cotto Have Been Keeping Boxing Alive

“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.

Cotto was floored so hard that you would have thought he was done and a lesser fighter would have been sleeping, but Cotto displayed the true heart of a warrior champion and got up from the canvas to knock out Torres in what is still my favorite Cotto fight to date. This is saying a lot for virtually all of Cotto's fights are exciting and action packed.

Cotto's popularity has grown so much that he is probably the only current boxer to be considered "Mr. Madison Square Garden" right now with many of his latest big wins all taking place and selling out the world's most famous sports arena.

Enter Manny Pacquiao, the current No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter in the world.

What can one say about Manny that is not being constantly said about him on a weekly basis?

Pacquiao is the current face of boxing—the only fighter to have the NIKE endorsement and have NIKE make him his very own shoes. If you mention boxing anywhere you go, the name Pacquiao will definitely come up as well for obvious reasons.

If you write an article on boxing and you do not write about Manny Pacquiao, there's a good chance not that many people will read it. But if you put the words "Manny Pacquiao" in the title of the article that alone will guarantee you hundreds of reads.

The reason is simple. Pacquiao is exciting. He is a fan pleaser. He wins over the masses with his superior speed, power, and aggressive work rate, not by dragging out a horrible 12th round decision or dancing his way to a safe victory win.

Incredibly, Pacquiao is actually improving largely with each new fight in terms of defense, accuracy, timing, counter punching, and ring generalship.

Some critics feel that Pacquiao only has Filipino fans worldwide but nothing could be farther from the truth. I've been to Pacquiao's last seven super mega fights in Las Vegas and I am often surrounded by die hard Pac Man fans who are in large number African American, Mexican, European, and White American. Not to mention his A-List celebrity fans: Denzel Washington, Jay-Z, Usher, Mark Wahlberg, and P. Diddy just to name a few.

I not only get to see the great Pacquiao fight but I get to see my other favorites as well: Marquez, Barrera, Morales for he often takes on the best exciting opponents as well.

Miguel Cotto will be by far his greatest toughest opponent ever for many reasons. Cotto is still very much in his prime; his only loss came from the allegedly suspect cheating plaster of Paris hands of Margarito. Cotto has the heart of a lion. When Cotto is hurt and bleeding he just keeps on coming forward for more hence why many call him the Terminator. Cotto is the naturally bigger man and true champion at welterweight.

Both of these fighters leave it all in the ring. They both stand toe to toe. They both hit very hard with big power for their size. They both fight to win over more fans.

This super mega fight: Manny Pacquiao vs. Miguel Cotto will be one of the greatest legendary epic wars of all boxing history because when you put two of the major fighters who have been keeping the sport alive for the last several years in the same ring against each other that is the only possible result.

[e-mail]