Vulnerable

At some point in the next few days, you will see the replay of last week’s fight between Manny Pacquiao and Miguel Cotto. You will be told to and just might fall in love with the acumen of the newly crowned welterweight champ; how his dominance has upped the stakes and demand for a megafight between him and Floyd Mayweather Jr. in 2010.

You will also be told that Cotto hasn’t been the same fighter since losing to Antonio Margarito last year. There seems to be some truth to that as his intimidating power was smothered in that bout by Margarito’s relentless attack (more on that later), but there’s so much more that’s overlooked. Despite subsequent wins over Michael Jennings and Joshua Clottey – the latter a pretty good fighter who just didn’t finish the job – Cotto wasn’t exactly the rib-bruising power puncher that made him such a force moving up the welterweight ranks. Last Saturday’s loss to Pacquiao was a greater exhibit in how different he became in the past two years.

When Cotto’s name was mentioned as a possible opponent for other big name boxers in the welterweight division, he was just known as devastating body puncher who would have difficulty against fighters who displayed a full offensive repertoire. Some observers believed that he needed to add more to his arsenal in order to work himself to a bigger payday against those better known pugilists like Mayweather. Overpowering Carlos Quintana, Zab Judah and Paulie Malignaggi with hooks to the midsection apparently, didn’t impress enough.

It was when he fought Shane Mosley that he started to show off a more consistent lead jab (in which he goes to an orthodox stance, but leads with his more powerful left hand). He would switch to a more natural southpaw stance at times in later rounds, but no matter what, he would still try to display more jabs and crosses than in previous fights. Though he won that fight by unanimous decision, Mosley fought well enough to show that not only he could still tango with the best of the younger generation (he’s nine years older than Cotto), but that Cotto wasn’t going to have as much ease finishing off savvier and more polished fighters.

Save for annihilating Alfonso Gomez after the Mosley bout, Cotto was already a different leading into his loss to Margarito, only which the changes were of his own making. It’s speculated (yet unproven) that Margarito had the ‘hands of Paris’ in that bout, but it has been generally accepted that Cotto took so much punishment in that fight that it took away the cloak of invincibility. Margarito kept coming with a constant flurry of punches. Cotto was hemmed up in the ropes throughout that fight; something that he customarily did to his opponents was now turned against him. As disovered, neither the new or old style would have succeeded against a guy who may have had illegal assistance.

The Clottey fight did just about as much to show this changed fighter, only with far more legal methods. A cut over his left eye from a head butt in the third round kept bleeding throughout the bout, but if it wasn’t for Clottey’s injured knee, it was more than likely that Cotto would have dropped this fight as well. Cotto was unable to see from his left side, but Clottey’s inhibited movement gave Cotto enough of a chance to get back into the fight. Neither man was able to truly finish off the other because of their injuries, but judges leaned towards Cotto for being game enough to regain his offense in the late rounds.

Boxing, as any other sport, presents so many “what ifs” that it’s too easy to say that one bout is always connected to another. Because of the time between fights, boxing fans and media can only go back to the last showing for some sort of trend. There were too many mitigating factors from Cotto’s last few bouts to say that there would have been a different outcome last weekend. If Cotto was the same fighter in his previous outings when facing Mosley, Mosley just may have won in the same manner that Pacquiao did, if not more convincing considering he’s a natural welterweight. The way the last two years have played out could have been far different for not just Cotto, but the entire division.

He is still a heck of a boxer, even if his losses have looked exceptionally awful. Pundits point to a change in trainers as Cotto fired his uncle after the victory over Jennings, yet Evangelista was in his corner during that controversial Margarito loss (Joe Santiago has been the trainer for the Clottey and Pacquiao bouts). Though a few dare to say that he should consider retirement at this point, he’s 29 years old and will find suitors for more fights. All of the guys he faced in the last three years had rather publicized chances to redeem themselves from defeats. We should expect that Cotto will get his as well in 2010.

Photo Credit to AP via Yahoo! Sports

Ryu

Only in relation to a combat sport does this video simile make sense.

WARNING: Video language not so nice.

Pay close attention to the 2:25 mark (:34 left in the eighth round) of the Shane Mosley - Antonio Margarito bout.



If that punch actually landed, it would have looked just like the :13 mark here:



Just glorious.

Overload

You will be overloaded over the next seven days, including Super Sunday.

With all due respect to the league that has granted this Scribe access over the past four years, the journey that the NFL takes – better yet, throws in front of us all – gets a little mind-numbing.

This may not be the ‘sexiest’ Super Bowl in recent memory, but it is the Super Bowl that provides a compelling matchup that should be able to stand on its own for a hopefully memorable NFL championship game. However, the idea that we need any more than two or three hours of coverage before the game begins is beyond comprehension.

Ninety hours from ESPN’s networks.

Fifty-five hours from the NFL Network (for the seventeen people who have it).

And just a measly six hours from NBC, the actual broadcaster of the Big Game.

For those of us who have something to do during the day such as work, go to school, look after the kids or sell illegal pharmaceuticals, we’re able to mostly avoid the über-analysis and absurd questions of Super Bowl Media Week. Even so, there is still an inordinant amount of programming waiting for us to smack our heads over and over again.

Yet, unlike most sports media personalities, your favorite blogger is going to give you some advice on how to avoid the Super Bowl Migraine that comes with actually paying attention:

First and foremost, don’t use sick days, Paid Time Off or vacation days to actually soak in any of the stuff coming out of the ‘idiot’ box. Not only will the multiple shows scramble your brain despite hearing the same stories over and over again, but you won’t have days to use later this year. Keep that vacation to the Caribbean during your favorite team’s bye week in mind.

Now, in terms of actual TV programming, there’s plenty to offer that you may have completely forgotten about because as this writer, your head has been wrapped around an oblong spherical brownish object thrown in the air for three hours. There are plenty of shows throughout the week that are showing new episodes, but if you have not been up-to-date on them, spend your next few evenings catching up on whatever shows you recorded on DVR or get yourself online… well, don’t watch anything on one of the MTV Networks or American Idol.

If you’re like this writer and barely keep up with actual scripted content, there’s a good chance that you are a true sports junkie. This week, the NBA offered a free week of their absolutely wonderful League Pass, giving cable subscribers a chance to see any game coast-to-coast. Look, the economy is shaky and people are looking to cost-cutting methods to save a buck or two. Yet, if you need to entertain yourself with something athletic, either invest in the half-season sports packages from the NBA, NHL or college basketball or find the nearest watering hole/restaurant. Hey, if you’re nice enough and willing to go Dutch on some (insert food delivery company here), I might let you swing by.

The Australian Open has been quite intriguing so far, so take a gander at either ESPN or The Tennis Channel to watch the matches that went on while you were sleeping.

If you are really hyped for some hitting and you’re fortunate to have the premium channels on demand, check out HBO and Showtime’s best matches of 2008 along with Sugar Shane Mosley’s absolute beatdown of Antonio Margarito that entertained many this past Saturday.

Of course, there was a time when there were about three television channels and only one TV per household. Some families huddled their one TV unit and watched iconic shows that still stand the test of time. Yet, some people did something that seems almost unheard of these days. They grabbed one of these. It’s not a bad idea to do so while all of the media in Tampa is sweating to find anything worth our attention when we wake the next morning.

Being that this was the first non-football weekend since the late summer, you probably reconnected with loved ones and friends, stepped out of the house on a Sunday, took a long weekend out of town or actually stepped inside a church for the first time since Easter. Have an encore performance.

If you’re like me and there are at least 10 movies in the past five years that you have not seen that people keep demanding that you watch, cherry pick a few for each day up until the minute leading to Sunday’s kickoff. I have a list of about thirty.

Finally, there are probably three or four websites you have been meaning to check out or some blogs that you haven’t caught up (ahem) with (ahem) in about a week (or month). This is a pretty good time to get all educated and whatnot.

By the time Super Sunday rolls around, you would swear that the last football game you watched was six years ago. You would be caught up with most of what you have missed in the last five months, you’d put a dent in a book that you haven’t touched since last May (Atlas Shrugged for this guy) and you would finally be able to say to your co-workers “yeah, I watched ‘Juno’ the other day and I got to say that it was kinda overrated”. You would be so far away from the gluttony of pre-pre-pre game coverage that you’d be convinced that Kurt Warner was the rookie that the Arizona Cardinals drafted last April.

Most importantly, you would actually look forward to watching the game itself.

Good luck and remember, by 6:30 PM this Sunday, it’ll be all over.