HBO's Manny Pacquiao vs Miguel Cotto 24/7 Episode One Get's an A

This new installment of the award winning documentary reality series starts off with both Miguel Cotto and Manny Pacquiao in the basement of the New York Yankees stadium waiting to be announced at the official announcement press conference for their super mega November 14th fight.

We see a playful, almost carefree, Pacquiao smiling and practising his wind up pitch and behind him we see a more serious all-business Cotto who seemed completely focused and all business.

Then we cut to an opening scene fit for a multi million dollar Hollywood blockbuster comic book adapted movie as we see a rain storm come down onto a luxury pool that Manny and his strength and conditioning coach are swimming laps outside in the cold rain. Manny can not swim very well at all and says he does not want to continue but his coach says no lets go.

24/7 does a good job on reporting the severe reality of just how bad these recent typhoons were that destroyed so many cities in the Philippines as they showed several powerful images of the typhoon's damage and the narrator labels it the worst disaster to hit the islands since World War II.

We see villages literally ripped apart to nothing and families literally floating away on what used to be parts of their homes. Truly a sad and tragic thing to these people.

Team Pacquiao state that they must remain focused and train despite the country being in disaster.

Freddie Roach, Manny's now famous legendary trainer expresses how the Hatton fight went exactly as he predicted and studied and says that big win was the best night of his life.

Then we cut to Miguel Cotto in Puerto Rico. We learn Cotto has began his training camp 35 days before Pacquiao even set foot inside a ring.

We meet Miguel Cotto's father who Team Cotto calls "Don Miguel". Don Miguel talks about Cotto's loss to Margarito and explains that he did not see tears come out of his son's eyes but he saw blood come out instead.

We are introduced is Cotto's new trainer Joel Santiago who started training Cotto right before the Joshua Clottey fight when Cotto and his uncle had their falling out take a turn for worse.

Later on we are introduced to Cotto's full entourage which include his strength and conditioning coach, personal team chef, Don Miguel who is the father and counselor, and Cotto's closest friend and manager Brian Perez, who without sounding insulting can only be best described as obese.

Cotto is seen getting his ninth tattoo on his upper arm as his family enters the room with his children and his wife Melissa. Cotto explains that he is not the best husband as he and his wife have been separated for two years but feels that separation showed them that they need each other.

Cotto and his entourage are seen at what seems to be a MTV cribs style mansion where everyone is lounging by the pool. Cotto trains in Tampa, Florida.

Finally we see footage of the U.S. Marines arriving from their base in Okinawa, Japan to provide food and water to the refugees of the typhoons. We also see a refugee camp location for all the thousands of victims of the disaster that seems to remind us of the images of the American Hurricane Katrina disaster causing thousands to seek refuge in a sports stadium as well.

Roach then sheds some light on the now infamous altercation between Pacquiao's financial adviser Koncz and strength and conditioning coach Ariza. He says their argument led to blows with Ariza slapping Koncz and then throwing a five punch combo. Roach half jokingly says Koncz has some decent defense as he kept his arms up high to block his face.

Koncz then talks to the camera and tries to down play the incident and says it was not as bad as the internet hyped it up to be.

We then see the weather in the Philippines is not improving and Roach strongly feels Manny must now move his camp to avoid being stuck there for good. Roach even pulls Manny into a closed room and tells him we need to leave now. Manny finally gives in and says we should sleep one more night and leave tomorrow morning.

Then the reality TV really kicks in as the next morning Freddie is pissed off that Manny is not leaving and is sitting down with a politician. Freddie interrupts them and says he has had enough and must leave now. Roach then leaves and Manny calls him and tries to get Roach to calm down.

This episode deserves an A for we finally get to welcome Miguel Cotto to the 24/7 series and meet his team and family and they did a great job explaining the suspicions behind his one and only loss to Margarito.

They also did a great job of showing the seriousness of the recent typhoon tragedies in the Philippines and showing what maybe a father and son relationship growing apart with Roach and Manny.

This is probably the first time HBO 24/7 ends an episode in this very cliff hanger like manner and to be honest with you I loved it.