INQUIRER Sports

DID MIGUEL ANGEL COTTO, who scored with a killer punch?a jarring left uppercut?connect the single biggest punch of the night during his fight against Manny Pacquiao?

There are a few other questions on that thrilling bout that may never be answered.

In fact, many fans are still puzzled at how Manny Pacquiao won his biggest fight by shelving the original fight plan.

Truth is that the magnitude of Pacquiao?s talent and achievement may never be aptly fathomed without first acknowledging that he disobeyed orders in order to score the greatest win of his career.

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The original plan was for Pacquiao to have a razzle-dazzle start.

This was a main part of what trainer Freddie Roach had laid out for a perfect fight.

Pacquiao failed to carry it out because Cotto beat him to a jumping fast start.

Pacquiao, in short, was put on the defensive, a stance where he was usually not at his best.

Stalled and often on the receiving end, Pacquiao solved the problem on the spot.

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It?s no longer new, this thing about Pacquiao dropping the fight plan.

But the details were pulled out from the shelf after Roach announced Pacquiao?s grade for his last fight.

Roach gave Pacquiao a 10?a perfect rating.

But, in the same breath, Roach claimed that Pacquiao failed to fight the perfect fight.

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?I gave him a 10. At the same time, he deviated from the fight strategy,? Roach told an interviewer in a report posted at Philboxing.com yesterday.

Roach was direct to the point when he said the Cotto conquest was Pacquiao?s biggest win.

He added that it was also Pacquiao?s hardest fight.

However, Roach failed to confirm or deny if Pacquiao could?ve scored an easier win executing the original fight plan.

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What came out clear, though, was how Pacquiao took an untested and very dangerous path in order to climb a boxing summit hitherto unreached by man.

Ordered to slash and slip out, Pacquiao decided to meet Cotto frontally starting the third round.

The result was a knockdown, which initially appeared like a slip after Cotto quickly sprang back on his feet.

Do take note that the third round opened with that killer uppercut to the Pacman?s jaw, whose aftershocks must?ve been felt in the hotel room where Pacquiao?s mother, Dionisia, was watching and praying, all the way to GenSan in Mindanao.

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By the fourth round, Cotto was still full of fight, an unforgiving killer bull, until Pacquiao stood firmly and slashed the foe with a lightning left to the head that sent the Puerto Rican down on all fours.

Shaken irreversibly, Cotto was methodically dismantled until his spirit also melted in the final rounds, when all he did was run and backpedal.

Actually, there was a point close to the end, before the referee stopped the merciless mauling, when Pacquiao stayed on the ropes and taunted the Cotto to come in, try and gore him.

This was a big no-no in the original Roach plot.

But there was no telling Pacquiao what to do after he decided to take the bull by the horns.