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LAS VEGAS – Manny Pacquiao staked his claim atop boxing’s mythical throne as the pound-for-pound best, using his lightning hand speed to beat and batter Miguel Cotto into submission Saturday at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.


Manny Pacquiao celebrates with trainer Freddie Roach after beating Miguel Cotto in a WBO welterweight title fight on Saturday in Las Vegas. (Jae C. Hong/AP Photo)




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Fight highlights

Pacquiao knocked Cotto down once in the third round and again in the fourth, pummeled him repeatedly and easily lifted the World Boxing Organization welterweight belt from the Puerto Rican with a 12th-round stoppage. The time was 55 seconds into the final round, as referee Kenny Bayless leaped between the fighters to save Cotto a more savage beating and ignominious end.
Cotto came out strong and landed some hard punches, but Cotto couldn’t deal with the speed. Pacquiao was landing three shots for every two Cotto did early. After the knockdown in the fourth, Cotto’s offense was nonexistent as he spent most of the last two thirds of the fight fending off Pacquiao’s onslaught.
Cotto landed in single digits in power shots in every round from the fifth forward.
Pacquiao nearly had the stoppage after the 11th when Cotto trainer Joe Santiago walked onto the ring apron and waved his hand at Bayless.
It appeared he was going to stop the fight, but then Bayless and ringside physician James Game spoke and allowed it to continue. It was only extending the misery as Pacquiao poured it on in the 12th.
When the fight ended, the crowd began to chant, “We want Floyd!” It was a reference to Floyd Mayweather Jr., the other man with a claim to the top of the boxing pound-for-pound list.
Pacquiao, who has won championship belts in five divisions and beat the linear champion in two others, can no longer be knocked as a small man who was beating washed up fighters.
In Cotto, he took on an elite and powerful welterweight whose only loss came under suspicious circumstances to Antonio Margarito last year. There is suspicion that Margarito’s gloves were loaded for that fight, though it has never been proven.
But Pacquiao proved he was able to not only take a welterweight punch, but rock him repeatedly. It was a magnificent performance and will create public demand for a fight with Mayweather.
“I want to see him fight Mayweather,” Pacquiao trainer Freddie Roach said.
Santiago said Pacquiao hit harder and was stronger than expected. Cotto injured his left shoulder in the eighth.

Slideshow: Manny Pacquiao


LAS VEGAS – The numbers that are reflected in the giant electronic billboard of Mandalay Bay’s betting station suggest a one-sided contest this coming Saturday.
Now it’s even harder to think that Manny Pacquiao is facing Miguel Cotto, the WBO welterweight champion who is supposed to be the younger, bigger and stronger fighter.
Pacquiao arrived here in Sin City late Monday evening after a delayed five-hour trip from Los Angeles, and amid all the bright, colorful lights stood as the overwhelming favorite.
Based on the odds, the 30-year-old Filipino superstar is now a -350 favorite, meaning you need to place $350 just to win a hundred bucks.
And for those rooting for Cotto, there’s everything to win and nothing to lose now. The 29-year-old champion from Puerto Rico is placed at +270, meaning you get $270 dollars for every bet of $100.
But during a quick stopover at Barstow, the halfway point of the LA-Vegas trip, Pacquiao tried to make fun of it all.
“Nanginginig na ako (I’m shaking),” he said when asked how he felt as the fight draws closer.
And you can feel the sarcasm when he added, “Malakas eh, at mabilis (He’s strong and he’s fast).
But later on, inside his suite, he turned serious, and before tucking himself in, said, “Ayoko isipin na llamado ako (I don’t want to think of myself as the favorite).”
Pacquiao is so favored that fight fans are looking for a knockout win for the reigning pound-for-pound champion who climbs the ring six months after a spectacular second-round knockout of Ricky Hatton at the MGM Grand.
For the Hatton fight, Pacquiao was a -270 favorite and Hatton at +230, and eveybody saw what happened.
Odds that this fight won’t last the distance are at -155 and that it would are at +125. It’s now 1/2 that Pacquiao would win by a knockout and 6/1 if it’s Cotto up on his feet in case of a knockout.
Pacquiao left LA a little past five in the afternoon, on board his gray SUV, together with his wife, Jinkee, and a couple of friends. Behind them were a few other vehicles and the customized Pacquiao bus.
Everybody went straight to Pacquiao’s suite at Mandalay Bay where a feast of Filipino food was prepared beforehand.
Pacquiao, with no problems at all with his weight, enjoyed his dinner of bulalo, kaldereta, chicken and rice.
“Grabe kumain, lamon (He splurged on them),” said Onyok Velasco, the silver medalist of the 1996 Atlanta Olympics in the 48 kg division. He has become a close friend of Pacquiao’s after they appeared in a movie together.
- By Abac Cordero (Philstar News Service, www.philstar.com)

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Japan suspect in Briton's murder stays silent: police
Slideshow: Faces of Asia PH


TOKYO (AFP) - – Japan's only suspect in the killing of a British woman who was arrested after more than two years on the run has stayed silent during initial questioning, police said Wednesday.
Tatsuya Ichihashi, 30, who underwent plastic surgery during his life as a fugitive, was arrested Tuesday in connection with the death of 22-year-old British teacher Lindsay Ann Hawker in early 2007.
"We started a full-fledged interrogation of the suspect today," said a spokesman for the Gyotoku Police Department in Chiba prefecture near Tokyo, where the investigation headquarters have been set up.
"The suspect has remained silent about the case after he initially told us he has nothing to say," the spokesman told AFP.
Hawker's body was found in a sand-filled bathtub on the balcony of Ichihashi's apartment in Chiba in March 2007.
He later underwent plastic surgery to his eyelids and nose, had facial moles removed and grew a beard, apparently hoping to evade detection as wanted posters were displayed at Japanese police and railway stations.
Ichihashi was carrying a toy gun when he was caught at an Osaka ferry terminal in western Japan on Tuesday where he was trying to catch a ship to southern Okinawa island.
Police said he would be questioned for up to 20 days before prosecutors decide on an indictment. He was arrested on a charge of abandoning a body rather than the more serious crime of murder.
In Japan, which this year introduced a jury system, murder can be punished with the death penalty, although capital punishment, carried out by hanging, is usually reserved for cases of multiple homicide.

LOS ANGELES - Patrick Swayze, the hunky actor who danced his way into moviegoers' hearts with "Dirty Dancing" and then broke them with "Ghost," died Monday after a battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 57.
"Patrick Swayze passed away peacefully today with family at his side after facing the challenges of his illness for the last 20 months," said a statement released Monday evening by his publicist, Annett Wolf. Swayze died in Los Angeles, Wolf said, but declined to give further details.
Fans of the actor were saddened to learn in March 2008 that Swayze was suffering from a particularly deadly form of cancer. He kept working despite the diagnosis, putting together a memoir with his wife and shooting "The Beast," an A&E drama series for which he had already made the pilot.
Swayze said he opted not to use painkilling drugs while making "The Beast" because they would have taken the edge off his performance. The show drew a respectable 1.3 million viewers when the 13 episodes ran in 2009, but A&E said it had reluctantly decided not to renew it for a second season.
When he first went public with the illness, some reports gave him only weeks to live, but his doctor said his situation was "considerably more optimistic" than that. Swayze acknowledged that time might be running out given the grim nature of the disease.
"I'd say five years is pretty wishful thinking," Swayze told ABC's Barbara Walters in early 2009. "Two years seems likely if you're going to believe statistics. I want to last until they find a cure, which means I'd better get a fire under it."
C. Thomas Howell, who co-starred with Swayze in "The Outsiders," "Grandview U.S.A." and "Red Dawn", said: "I have always had a special place in my heart for Patrick. While I was fortunate enough to work with him in three films, it was our passion for horses that forged a friendship between us that I treasure to this day. Not only did we lose a fine actor today, I lost my older 'Outsiders' brother."
Other celebrities used Twitter to express condolences, and "Dirty Dancing" was the top trending topic for a while Monday night, trailed by several other Swayze films.
Ashton Kutcher — whose wife, Demi Moore, co-starred with Swayze in "Ghost" — wrote: "RIP P Swayze." Kutcher also linked to a YouTube clip of the actor poking fun at himself in a classic "Saturday Night Live" sketch, in which he played a wannabe Chippendales dancer alongside the corpulent — and frighteningly shirtless — Chris Farley.
And Larry King wrote: "Patrick Swayze was a wonderful actor & a terrific guy. He put his heart in everything. He was an extraordinary fighter in his battle w Cancer." King added that he'd do a tribute to Swayze on his CNN program Tuesday night.
A t...

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