ARIZA: PACQUIAO SHOWED COTTO MERCY
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Sun, 15 Nov 2009
In a post-fight interview following his destruction of Miguel Cotto in which he grabbed the Puerto Rican’s WBO welterweight title and the organization’s super champion belt and also the coveted WBC “Diamond Belt” studded with hundreds of diamonds, rubies and other precious stones, Manny Pacquiao likened himself to a tiger that stalked his wounded prey.
Pacquiao stopped Cotto at 55 seconds of the twelfth round in a brutal beating and said later “I was like a ferocious tiger.”
He said Cotto “kept running” but praised him nevertheless saying “he is still very tough.”
Pacquiao’s conditioning expert Alex Ariza who must be given a lot of credit for working together with celebrated trainer Freddie Roach to turn the Filipino southpaw into a menacing fighting machine told www.insidesports.ph, Standard Today and Viva Sports that “what you saw tonight was mercy. I thought Manny could have finished him so many times but he just didn’t want to hit him anymore.”
Ariza also criticized Cotto’s corner saying “his father should have stopped that fight. Shame on him for letting his pride possibly injure his son.”
However, Ariza said Cotto “deserves a lot of credit. He showed up, he was in shape. No more excuses . I don’t think anybody can ever say anything about Manny . He fought the best 147 pounder out there and destroyed him.”
Asked what’s next for Pacquiao and where he would go from here, Ariza quipped “to the moon. I don’t know where this guy begins where is the end. I just don’t know anymore.” However, while fight fans and the media are pleading for a Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather Jr fight, Ariza said “I don’t like that fight” saying there was no need to give Mayweather any importance.
The conditioning guru said he’d prefer one more fight with Juan Manuel Marquez who has been pleading for one more shot at Pacquiao following two close fights. Ariza said “we’d like to fight Marquez at a 140 pounds and shut his mouth so we don’t have to hear from him again.”
He said Marquez “can go to the mountains, break rocks, drink pee and then come here and get knocked out.”
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ronnie Nathanielsz.
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