Unfortunately for the Puerto Rican great, the first round was about as good as it would get for him on this Saturday night.

A sellout crowd of 16,200 at the MGM Grand hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada watched Pacquiao, or “Pac-Man” as he is colloquially known, take Miguel Cotto apart with his speed and power.

Cotto was sent to the canvas in both the third and fourth rounds, and he was forced to try to merely survive in the latter part of the fight. In that endeavor, the former welterweight champion succeeded until the 12th and final round.

Pacquiao also displayed excellent punch resistance in the bout. Cotto, a precise boxer with superb timing, landed on Pacquiao repeatedly, but the smaller man was never seriously hurt or even seemingly bothered by Cotto’s blows.

By winning Cotto’s WBO World Welterweight Championship belt, Pacquiao has become the first man in boxing history to claim titles in seven different weight divisions.

The fight was anticipated as boxing’s Fight of the Year for 2009, and it did not disappoint in build-up or in execution. Before the main event, a long video was played to hail boxing’s long history of dramatic fights and storied rivalries. This package was intended to give the sport a boost with its fans as it competes for the same pay-per-view dollars as the rising mixed martial arts world.

Jim Lampley, one of the fight announcers, said that pay-per-view sales for the bout are expected to be quite good. HBO ran several weeks of its award-winning 24/7 series to serve as an extended promotion leading up to the match.

At the time of the stoppage, CNM had the fight scored 108-99 for the winner, Manny Pacquiao.

Paul F. Villarreal

Liberal: Remember Katrina, hurricanes are the Bush administrations fault, arrrrg!

Me:  A Muslim shoots people at an army base….

Liberal: He must have been traumatized by a Republican as a child. It is an isolated incident just like 911 the bombing of our embassies , Just two isolated incidents … bombing USS Cole, okay just four isolated incidents…

Liberal: It must be the incitement from Sara Palin and Rush Limbaugh.

Me: he was a psychiatrist treating soldiers before they went to war.

Liberal: he was traumatized, thinking about being traumatized in Afghanistan ,where he would have been traumatized, watching Muslims kills Muslims, because they were traumatized, about the potential for Muslims, to be traumatized, by a new cartoon, in Denmark.

Liberal: This is a tragedy, a shame, sorrowful, sad……… that there may be a backlash against Muslims in the United States. Every time some poor man that happens to be named Osama or Mohammad or Hassan shoots up dozens of people, blows himself up in a crowd, or just happens to fly airplanes into buildings or mistakenly cut off the heads of angry white guys, it risks a backlash against the vast majority of peaceful Muslims.

Liberal commentators: We need to find the root cause of these problems. What makes an ordinary American who happens to be named Hassan, and is a psychiatrist who recent gave a speech about cutting off infidel’s heads, and pouring hot oil down their throats go craaaazy like this? It may be because he is eating a western diet of Twinkies instead of healthy, sustainable, vegetables, and grains that all countries in the world have except the United States. Perhaps it is because we don’t have a single payer system here like they do in such destination places like the Cuba, Sudan and Yemen.

Obama: This is a teachable moment. We shouldn’t’ rush to judgment here until all the facts are in. We can only rush to judgment if it is a white policeman checking on two scholarly African Americans who happen to be seen busting open a door in the back of a house in the middle of the night. Perhaps we can invite some Al Qaeda leaders over for a beer….. oooops no alcohol.

Larry Levine

THE FOLLOWING VIDEO IS NO LONGER AVAILABLE ON YOUTUBE:

This information adds to a growing body of evidence which suggests that Hasan was a devout and conflicted Muslim who had reached out to radical factions of his faith in the time preceding the Fort Hood massacre.

Paul F. Villarreal