Quality Start: PacMan Delivers

Good morning lovers of excellence and dick jokes. What a night for Boxing, huh? Last night in Vegas, the million plus of us who paid for it saw a great fighter in the middle of his greatness. Manny Pacquiao did not disappoint. He pounded Miguel Cotto to a bloody pulp and didn’t need to load his tape with plaster to do it. So much for Manny being smaller which was supposed to compromise his knockout ability against the bigger Cotto. He put him down twice, his left hook in the 4th being the punch that changed the entire fight. Cotto came out guns ablaze, which is surprising since he needed to put Pacquiao in a corner or against the ropes and pound him. Even by doing that Cotto was fighting a terrific fight. The first knockdown, in the third round, was really a grazing shot that stunned Cotto and he got up and in my opinion won the round. But that damn left hook in the fourth changed everything. At that point Cotto was done. He was still moving but his ability to flurry was gone. He backpedaled and counterpunched. He got tattooed by a relentless Pacquiao that by the ninth the fight could have been stopped. But Cotto was the Champion and he fights like one and would not let his corner throw in the towel. The ref probably deferred to the fact that the Champ was still moving but in the 12th, even with 55 seconds left, Cotto was vulnerable and getting pummeled. I have always respected Miguel Cotto. He is a great fighter but last night he fought the greatest.

Manny Pacquiao is fighting better than anyone my generation has ever seen. We hear about Joe Louis, Sugar Ray Robinson, Muhammad Ali, Roberto Duran guys that were true athletes a step better than being great fighters but we never lived it. Sure we had the Tysons, De La Hoyas, Whitakers, Chavezs etc etc but none of them were so much better than their competition, fighting on another level. The only guy close for us is Floyd Mayweather but Floyd has never felt the need to put it out there against a great fighter in his prime like Manny did last night. Hopefully, last night leads to it. The two are perfect for each other. Manny with his lightning speed, relentlessness and power. Mayweather with his historic defense, counterpunching, and speed.

The window for greatness lasts only so long. You don’t start out great and you don’t end up great but there is an area in a great athlete’s life where everything comes together and then we are watching something rarely seen. It is not to say that a great fighter’s very good is not better than a good fighter’s great but what I saw last night was unbelievable. What I saw in September, when Floyd pummeled a tiny Juan Manuel Marquez, was unbelievable. There should be no games, no tune ups, no paydays before. Do this next. The Boxing world needs Mayweather/Pacquiao before greatness fades.

I had the boys over last night for some drinks and we flipped between UFC and the Boxing matches. Watching these fights in HD brings out things you never really thought about. Like watching Michael Buffer watch the prelims bored shitless in the second row. Or seeing a celebrity pop up in the background and be able to identify them without squinting. All of a sudden Derek Jeter popped up sitting next to Marky Mark and Will Farrell. That prompted me to text clown.

Roman: Derek Jeter in crowd. Did you make cumsies?

Clown: I had to change pants.I’ll have to leave if they show CC.

As the great fight developed, clown texted me to let me know my thoughts on Friday were correct.

Clown: You were right. PAC is awesome. The Cowboys are gay. Fahk you.

Roman: I agree with you. I was right.

Or something like that, I was drunk I can’t remember every detail. With my drunkenness in mind here are a few thoughts on other sports happenings yesterday.

UFC 105 Live Tape Delayed from England: Not a bad card. Micheal Bisping destroyed Dennis Kang, I enjoyed the Matt Brown/James Wilks fight won by Brown, and Dan Hardy did what he need to do against Mike Zwick. in the Main Event, Randy Couture won by decision against Brandon Vera. For the second straight Main Event, the judges decision was wrong. Vera had the most significant moments in the fight like the kick to Couture’s ribs in the second round that put “The Natural” down and he took some heavy blows. Randy’s greatest attrribute is preventing big problems from turning into major disasters. He did it in all  three rounds. Keeping Vera pinned by the cage and not getting into a kicking and punching contest but Vera landed significant blows in all three rounds. This fight wasn’t Balboa/Creed by any stretch but it wasn’t a total borefest. Vera should have won. He didn’t. The judges are having big effects lately. I definitely don’t want to hear that argument anymore by those who denounce boxing. MMA is just as tainted by the human element.

In the NBA, Brandon Jennings scored 55 points in his 7th ever NBA game. The Bucks beat the Warriors. It’s a good thing that the Knicks picked Jordan Hill 7th because Brandon Jennings wouldn’t have fit in Mike D’Antoni’s offense being a scoring point guard who is lighting fast, can shoot threes and move the ball. Well done, Donnie Walsh. Douche. Here are the other scores.

In Minor League Football, shit happened. Apparently, winning in overtime over another “fraudulent” football team is cause for celebration. tOSU earned the right to lose in the Rose Bowl to Oregon. (Is it Oregon? Stanford? Whoever it is it ain’t USC) To look at Stanford’s 55-21 thrashing of USC at the Coleseum or other scores I don’t give a shit about, go here.

In the NHL, The Islanders gritted out another point in a shootout loss to the Panthers. John Tavares had a goal and assist. Here are the other scores for you to not care about.