Pac Man builds legacy

LAS VEGAS — Manny Pacquiao’s legacy has always been discussed in comparison to Oscar De La Hoya and Floyd Mayweather, Jr. After his dismantling of Miguel Cotto, it’d be more fitting for him to be compared with the L.A. Lakers and New England Patriots.

Pacquiao recorded two knockdowns and utterly dominated Cotto en route to an 12th round technical knockout 55 seconds into the round.

The win gave the Filipino star his seventh title in a different weight class.

The victory was also his third consecutive jump in weight after bouts with De La Hoya and Ricky Hatton. The victory now sets the stage for a showdown between him and undefeated Mayweather, who ended a nearly two year retirement to fight Juan Manuel Marquez. Mayweather won that bout by unanimous decision.

After a slow start, Pacquiao (50-3-2, 38 KOs) had no problem connecting his punches on Cotto (34-2-0 27 KOs). In the bout's second round Pacquiao landed 40 total punches on the Puerto Rican.

In all, Cotto was hit by 267 punches, the most landed on him in his career. It was also the most landed by Pacquiao during his 14-year professional career.

After winning 10 consecutive round on a majority of the three judges scorecards, Pacquiao was not content to simply win.

“I was looking for a knockout shot,” Pacquiao said. “I heard that he was bigger than me and stronger than me, so I tried to get him to stand toe-to-toe.”

Cotto’s corner tried to stop the fight in the 10th and 11th rounds. Even Cotto’s father tried to step into the ring, but was turned away by the Puerto Rican’s cornerman.