What are the chances the Puerto Rican superstar will spoil what appears to be inevitable? Slim.

Here’s why. It would be an accolade for Cotto to be considered as good a fighter as Oscar “The Golden Boy” De La Hoya or the erstwhile 140-pound king Ricky Hatton, Manny’s victims in his last two famous encounters. Without more but his size, Cotto is similarly bound for destruction by the most talented student of boxing today.

One critical key to easy victory for Pacquiao is his punching accuracy honed of late to near perfection by the “master” himself, Freddie Roach, something that was not consistent or absent from Zab Judah, Ricardo Torres and Shane Mosely, elite world champions whose boxing styles are being compared to Manny Pacquiao’s but who all succumbed to Cotto’s vaunted true grit. The comparison is farfetched.

Cotto is obviously the bigger guy but he is not necessarily the stronger fighter and so if he plans to slug it out early with Manny, he will go down as loudly and early as Hatton.

While many expect the hand and foot speed of the Filipino boxer to neutralize Cotto’s (planned) strategic attack to the rib cage (or perhaps the groin), it is Manny’s precise delivery of his punches and counterpunches and superb ring intelligence which will earn him a secure place in sports history in just another memorably stunning fashion.

My prediction: the Pacman will heartily consume Miguel Cotto within four to five rounds to take home not only Cotto’s WBO welterweight title but Mohammad Ali’s, “The Greatest.”

Contrary to what many boxing enthusiasts may be expecting, I do not see Ricky Hatton using his strength and size and goin’ smokin’ in the early stage of the fight. If Hatton’s corner has no respect for the smaller guy’s punching power, then the fight will end very early for Manny.

I’m therefore envisioning both fighters boxing, that is, jabbing and occasionally throwing power punches and hooks, in the firs two or three rounds of the fight: for Manny, because he’s more comfortable with this style, and for the street fighter from Manchester, because he has to feel first how effective on him those redoubtable power punches are from the pound-for-pound king as he begins to absorb them before deciding to go for a brawl, where he’s equally comfortable.

The size-up stage is favorable to Manny who has already proven he’s an excellent boxer-puncher. If Manny’s jabs and counter-punching are too much for Hatton and Hatton’s jabs (I’m quite certain his famous trainer Floyd Mayweather, Sr. has honed this untapped skill of him) are not finding the target (Manny’s head movements and blocks as against slower and bigger opponents are now givens), Hatton will then be instructed by his corner to switch to slugging to catch up on points with body punches in the fourth round. But Manny will neutralize this change of strategy by maneuvering to stay in the center of the ring which will not be hard for him to do because of his superior footwork and ring generalship.

What Hatton did to IBF junior welterweight champion Paul Malignaggi, essentially a boxer and a “slickster” with little punching power, will not work because Manny is faster than Malignaggi, and Manny can choose to be explosive and slug out it when called for to stop the pressure and aggression from the bigger fighter, Hatton.

Interestingly, Malignaggi lost to Hatton because well behind on points his trainer Buddy McGirt stopped the fight in the 11th round against the fighter’s protestation. This scenario is very unlikely to happen to Manny and his trainer Freddie Roach despite the recent case of Gerry Peñalosa having been stopped by Roach for being similarly well behind on points in a title fight against Puerto Rican sensation Juan Manuel Lopez. Gerry is a great fighter but Manny Pacquiao is Manny Pacquiao.

Somewhere in the fifth or sixth round, not only would Manny be piling up points, it’s also likely Hatton face would be busted up by then.

If Manny never comes to respect Hatton whose body shots Manny has, hopefully, trained well to absorb, I could see Manny not giving Hatton any quarters at all but taking him out with a killer combo before the end of the sixth round.