Home 
LAS VEGAS—He’s a once-in-a-lifetime warrior preparing for a once-in-a-lifetime fight, hoping to create a memory that will last a lifetime.
And Miguel Cotto is out to foil all that.
Manny Pacquiao, admittedly the star of this latest blockbuster offering from boxing, offered little guarantees outside of the one he regularly makes, promising to make things interesting in his bid for history during the final press conference for the super bout pitting him against the Puerto Rican champion on Nov. 14 at the MGM Grand here.
Coaxed into throwing a bold statement and reeled in with leading questions, Pacquiao refused to bite, saying he’ll just do his best to provide an entertaining match for boxing fans all around the world and to bring honor to a country that stops to watch every time he steps into the ring.
“This is a once-in-a-lifetime fight,” Pacquiao said.
“If I win, I’ll make history in boxing and people will remember my name for a long time,” he added.
Pacquiao is aiming for a world crown in a seventh weight class, and it is his ability to break down weight barriers that has caught the imagination of an audience that has transcended the regular sports fan.
“Manny Pacquiao means a lot to boxing,” said Top Rank chief Bob Arum, who is promoting this fight. “Remember boxing has had a limited audience for how many years. Now look at what has happened. Everyone is interested in Manny Pacquiao, his story.”
And now Pacquiao hopes the boxing gods repay him for all the hard work he has put into making the sport relevant across different sections of society.
Unprecedented 7th belt
The latest world crown Pacquiao is hoping to collect is Cotto’s WBO welterweight title. And the Puerto Rican is not going to simply yield to popular demand.
“I'm not mad at the people—whether they want me to win or not,” Cotto told reporters after the press conference. “I just work to win, and that's what is going to happen on Saturday night.
“I’ve trained a lot for this fight and I know Manny’s skill,” he added. “But we have a great game plan for the fight and it’s going to be a great night for boxing, especially for Latinos and Puerto Ricans.”
Cotto (34-1, 27 knockouts) is the defending champion of the bout, but there was not even a murmur of objection when Bob Arum described Pacquiao (49-3-2, 37 KOs) as the star of the show.
Star of the show
“In this fight, [Cotto] is not the star of the show,” Arum said. “But without him, we wouldn’t be talking about record numbers. [Cotto] is the biggest obstacle to Manny’s bid.”
And it does look like the fight card, dubbed “Firepower,” is headed for record numbers.
“From every sign that we see, we know our goal of garnering more than one million pay-per-view buys is well within sight,” said Mark Taffet, a vice president for HBO Sports, which is beaming the fight on PPV.
And most of these buys will be from people eager to see if the division-hopping Pacquiao can use his unmatched hand speed to counter the power that a natural welterweight like Cotto brings into a fight that has a catch weight of 145 pounds.
A day after Arum described Pacquiao as a “phenomenon unfolding before our eyes,” trainer Freddie Roach added to the accolade by calling the hard-hitting southpaw a “one-off” fighter who is as rare as they come.
“People ask me ‘When are we going to see the next Manny Pacquiao ?’” Roach told The Telegraph. “We’re not, not in my lifetime, or in your lifetime going to see another Manny Pacquiao. He’s a one-off. Fighters like him don’t come around that often.”
