INQUIRER Sports

IT WAS NOT ACCURATE what was stated here previously that Manny Pacquiao won an unprecedented seventh world boxing crown unscathed.

There were nicks, more like insect bites, under Pacquiao?s eyes as shown in the evening replay of the bruising bout.

In order to inflict the petty swelling, Miguel Cotto had to pay a monstrous price.

He lost his world boxing crown.

Not only that. Cotto also suffered the severest beating of his respectable boxing career.

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Pacquiao, no doubt, was hurt a few times, as he himself humbly admitted.

Cotto was taken to the hospital for routine check-up and immediate attention.

Cotto required repairs on his bloodied, badly cut face.

Pacquiao himself required immediate medical attention.

But this, according to boxing chronicler Dr. Ed de la Vega, was only to drain a swelling in Pacquiao?s right ear and prevent the ?cauliflower? effect usually suffered by prizefighters.

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Cotto did try to conceal his helpless state during the fight, but he inevitably ended up like a gory ghost paying Pacquiao a belated Halloween visit at the Las Vegas MGM Grand Garden Arena.

Pacquiao, for his part, was an amusing sight, a modern-day self-portrait of Vincent van Gogh when he reported with a bandaged right ear concealed under a hat during his celebrated postfight song concert.

Anyway, it?s worth noting that the fight was already over when Cotto learned that Pacquiao only acted calm, unshaken despite getting jarred by several killer blows in the early rounds.

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Pacquiao was not one to lie.

He admitted that he pretended and played it cool and composed despite the painful punishment.

He said he did not want Cotto to gain confidence and jump on him.

For his part, Cotto did try his best to stay on his feet after realizing the futility of slugging it out with the still-sharp and powerful Pacquiao in the closing rounds.

Unfortunately, Cotto ended up backpedaling, the reason he was later accused of losing guts and surrendering.

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Yes, it was a tough match that was decided on adjustments.

Pacquiao, after a tense start, gained the upperhand by playing unpredictable and by deviating from the original battle plan.

Ordered to slash and quickly slip away, he boxed both swift and slow, but remained sharp and deliberate both inside and out.

This was the reason there were fans who offered the observation that there were no less than two Pacquiaos who conquered Cotto.

In the end, though, it became clear that Pacquiao also won a battle of concealment.

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Now, this is not to say that a third Pacquiao was also there inside the ring versus Cotto.

Far from that. But what clearly won for Pacquiao this ultimate test of character was the hungry, unsinkable, fatherless poor boy who smiled through tears and pain while wrestling with an unwilling world for a living.

That boy showed up, a mature and unshakeable warrior, for the big fight against Cotto.

?Nakita na ninyo kung gaano kahirap? (You saw how horrible it was?),? Pacquiao?s mother, Dionisia, told interviewers after the Saturday night ordeal of his son was over.

Mommy Pacquiao did not say it, but Cotto was obviously clueless about this dimension in the Pacquiao arsenal.