Miguel Cotto goes down against Manny Pacquiao in the fourth round. Pacquiao won by 12th round referee stoppage in a dominant performance. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

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Manny Pacquiao was sensational tonight in Las Vegas, knocking down Miguel Cotto twice, battering him throughout the majority of the fight, and forcing Kenny Bayless to stop the fight in the 12th round of a dominant performance, giving Pacquiao his 50th career win and arguably his most impressive.

Pacquiao (50-3-2, 38 KO) floored Cotto on timing shots in the third and fourth rounds, but after Cotto looked sharp, strong and fast early, he was dominated over the latter half of the fight. Pacquiao proved that there is no questioning his power at this weight, and no questioning his ability to take a good shot, either. He walked through some strong punches from Cotto (34-2, 27 KO) and seemed to barely feel them. Pacquiao, on the other hand, was able to hurt Cotto consistently.

He was faster, stronger, and better. Miguel Cotto isn't old, wasn't drained, isn't "overrated." Cotto did all he could tonight, but he was laid to waste by a superior fighter.

Pacquiao is now the WBO welterweight titleholder, the seventh weight class in which he's won a major title, the first man to ever do that.

Pacquiao's return has been rumored to be March 13, 2010, but that may move. Promoter Bob Arum had floated the idea of a Cotto-Pacquiao rematch if it was a great fight. It was an entertaining fight, and a masterful performance from Pacquiao, but it was not a great fight, and a rematch would be useless. There was no doubt. Cotto was pulled out of the fight by referee Kenny Bayless almost as soon as he was hit hard one time by Pacquiao in the 12th.

Bayless, unlike Cotto's corner, protected the fighter. Cotto was on his bike most of the latter rounds, straight-up running from Pacquiao. He was demoralized and in some ways embarrassed. His pride took a hit tonight. Cotto showed clear fear of Pacquiao in many rounds, and there's no disputing that.

Manny Pacquiao is a fighter unlike any other in the world.

There will be much more tomorrow, perhaps tonight, and in the coming week. But is there any other fight besides Pacquiao-Mayweather now? As Pacquiao avoided the question of having a preference for his next opponent, the public will respond: Floyd Mayweather Jr.

There is no other fight for either man.

Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. won an easy decision over club fighter Troy Rowland. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

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Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. kept his undefeated record in a sleep-inducing 10-round decision over Michigan club fighter Troy Rowland in the final fight on the Cotto-Pacquiao undercard, winning on scores of 99-91, 98-92, 97-93. Bad Left Hook scored it 97-93 for Chavez.

Chavez is now 41-0-1 (30), while Rowland falls to 25-3 (7).

There's not really much analysis here. This fight had no business on PPV, especially one this big, and was met with boos by the crowd at the MGM Grand, which it rightly earned. In all fairness to Rowland, he came to win and did his very best. Chavez, who was there to be showcased, was terribly unimpressive yet again. At 23, I know some people like to point out that he's young, but he really just does not improve, ever. If there's really an "it," he does not have it.

The main event is just about to start, so join us in our live thread linked above!

Yuri Foreman routed Daniel Santos to win the WBA junior middleweight title in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

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Yuri Foreman outquicked, outboxed, and outfoxed a sluggish, out-of-shape Daniel Santos to win the WBA junior middleweight title tonight, winning a 12-round decision on scores of 116-110, 117-109 and 117-109. Bad Left Hook scored the fight 118-108 for Foreman, who took the role of aggressor, a rarity for the cautious Jewish star.

Foreman (28-0, 7 KO) scored two knockdowns of Santos (32-4-1, 23 KO), who came in at an exceptionally heavy 173 pounds for the fight, 19 pounds over his weigh-in of 154 yesterday. The 34-year-old Santos looked old, slow and unbalanced all night long, laying back and trying to load up single shots. It was clear he wasn't physically prepared following his long layoff. Santos last fought in July 2008.

For Foreman, it's his first major title, and will guarantee him some more big fights in the near future. He's beatable, but also bankable to some degree. Santos might have to move up to 160 if this fight was any indication, or he might just need to get more active again. He really is a fantastic fighter, but you would have never known it tonight.

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Former "Contender" star Alfonso Gomez won a decision over Jesus Soto Karass in the opening fight of the Cotto-Pacquiao card tonight in Las Vegas. The fight was stopped with 46 seconds left in the sixth round, with Gomez unable to see out of his left eye. A headbutt had opened the wound early in the fight, and as the battle wore on, it became too much.

Soto Karass lost two points to low blows in the third and fourth rounds, and it wound up costing him what would have been a draw. Gomez won on scores of 58-54, 57-55 and 57-55. Bad Left Hook had it 57-55 for Gomez at the time of the stoppage.

Gomez improves to 21-4-2 (10 KO), while Soto Karass falls to 24-4-3 (16 KO).

Lovemore N'dou and Matthew Hatton fought to a draw in England. N'dou retained his IBO welterweight title. (Photo via images.sportinglife.com)

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Lovemore N'dou retained his IBO welterweight title today after drawing with Matthew Hatton in England. Official scores were 115-114 N'dou, 115-114 Hatton and 114-114. Bad Left Hook (between Brick and myself covering about half the fight each) had it for N'dou 116-112, but from what I could tell, the draw isn't really controversial.

Truth be told, neither man looked particularly sharp or anything close to world class. N'dou (47-11-2, 31 KO) hadn't sparred in five weeks after suffering a cut in training that threatened to cancel the bout, and Hatton (37-4-2, 14 KO) just wasn't able to show that he's made any truly major strides under Lee Beard. There is no doubt that the 28-year-old Hatton has gotten better, but he remains a rather ordinary fighter, a journeyman-type with a famous last name. He's got heart to burn and is a quite likable sort, but it's just not there. Neither he nor Ricky are particularly naturally skilled, but Ricky has/had far more power and just picked up on things better, it would seem.

I'm not bashing Matthew at all. Again, I like him and have nothing in the world against him, but N'dou is 38, looked rusty in there, and is the sort of fighter one should beat if one is going to make any great leaps in boxing. Hatton couldn't do it.

It wouldn't surprise me at all to see a rematch come about. The fight had trouble just getting made from N'dou's side, and Lovemore showed guts sticking with the fight and having it come off. Both will probably feel there's unfinished business. I'd have to favor a properly-trained N'dou were a rematch to come about, because I don't see Matthew getting any better than he is, and he was able to benefit from Lovemore being sloppy in there.

On the undercard, a fight between knockaround guys Cello Renda and Phil Samuels stole the show for the evening. Samuels (20-7-2, 12 KO) was knocked down in the first, but both of them went down on mirror left hooks in the second round, the ever-rare double knockdown. Samuels stormed Renda and stopped him in the third. It was all action. Terrific fight. Renda is now 18-8-1 (11).

In a crossroads bout, Scott Lawton (27-5-1, 6 KO) scored a rare stoppage by getting Derry Matthews (21-4, 11 KO) out in the sixth. Matthews, 26, has now lost four of his last five, all by knockout. To say he's hit a rough patch is a great understatement.

Gary Buckland (17-1, 6 KO) was sensational in a first-round stoppage of Istvan Hangy (12-6, 7 KO).

Chad Dawson's second win over Glen Johnson was assertive and showed his skills. But it didn't thrill and it didn't draw in his home state. (AP Photo/Fred Beckham)

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There's no denying the pure, natural talent that Chad Dawson has, nor the fact that he's put in the work to become a world-ranked fighter, one of the best in the game today. And at 27, he has a lot of time left to become even better than he already is.

But he has one major problem that may haunt him for years to come: Star power. He doesn't have any.

At least not yet, anyway. The XL Center in Hartford, Conn., sold 5,230 tickets for Dawson's rematch with Glen Johnson. That's hardly the worst crowd you'll see at an American venue, but the fight was taken to Connecticut because that's Dawson's home state, where he theoretically has his most fans. And unfortunately for "Bad" Chad's immediate business future, that crowd of just over 5K probably was the most he's going to draw.

It's not all his fault, but you also can't say that his promoter, Gary Shaw, is really at fault either. What more could Shaw have done? We often can point at the fact that the promoter and fighter never really built a home base for the fighter, but for Dawson, that isn't the case. Dawson's rematch with Johnson on Saturday was his 18th fight in Connecticut in 29 professional bouts.

According to just about everybody, there was no real buzz about the event. Was that a promotional mistake, or was it more that Dawson just hasn't captivated anybody's imagination? A mix of both is most likely, but one is easily fixable. The other -- Dawson's appeal -- is not. As much as he might improve as a boxer, he's unlikely to become any more charismatic.

There was also noticeable booing near the end of the fight on Saturday. A portion of the crowd also chanted for Dawson, which seemed a combative measure. Dawson's post-fight interview also didn't get the warmest reception.

He's not a great presence. I don't know how to measure these things, but as good as he is, as many fine performances as I've seen from him, and as closely as I follow boxing, I've yet to be truly excited for Dawson, and it seems as though that's the case for a great many fans. He's been a feature, main event fighter on both Showtime and HBO. He's taken challenges from established stars. And he's never lost. Generally, he's even pretty dominant.

But name a great fight from Dawson -- you can't. Outside of the first fight with Johnson, he really hasn't even had one that's been all that much fun to watch.

Now, you can say the same about Floyd Mayweather Jr., the sport's biggest money man, but for years Floyd also had these problems. He wasn't a live draw (still isn't, relative to his stature), and was never a big draw on TV or PPV either until he met up with Oscar de la Hoya and was able to let his personality shine, whichever way you lean on that.

Will Dawson "sell out" like that? Will he become a villain to attempt to attract a bigger audience, even if that audience largely wants to see him lose? It's a great tradition in combat sports and even more so in professional wrestling. If you can't get them to really cheer you, get them to boo you. It's easier and you just might make a lot more money in the meantime.

Even Shaw understands (also from Dan Rafael's post-fight article):

"I don't think he is going to change. He's one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world but just like there are some that don't like the style of Floyd Mayweather or a Pernell Whitaker, Chad dominates. ... He has lightning fast hands so I don't understand why he doesn't throw more or walk someone down. I don't think he still has the confidence he can take people out and I really do think he can. If he throws the combinations he can hurt anybody."

Lou DiBella, who co-promotes Glen Johnson, has similarly mixed feelings on Dawson:

"I think he's a tremendous talent but he needs to be more cognizant of being an entertainer. He has the ability to be a whole lot more pleasing than he is. I think maybe he will be but he needs to make adjustments. When you're in your hometown and the fans are booing you that says something."

It does indeed. And it's that "something" won't be changing any time soon.

Full CompuBox statistics for last night's HBO card in Connecticut are available for your viewing. The statistics are posted after the jump. As always, I note that the numbers don't always tell the story, but they do for Dawson-Johnson, and they especially do for Alfredo Angulo's massacre of Harry Joe Yorgey.

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Chad Dawson defeated Glen Johnson decisively in their rematch tonight. (Photo via images.sportinglife.com)

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In the main event of tonight's HBO World Championship Boxing, Chad Dawson routed Glen Johnson over 12 rounds in a rematch of their tight 2008 battle, leaving no doubts this time about the identity of the superior fighter. Dawson kept his undefeated record with arguably the best and most impressive win of his career.

Still, the scorecards were close. Two judges scored it 115-113 for Dawson, and the third scored it a much more realistic-seeming 117-111. Bad Left Hook had it 119-109 for Dawson, who controlled the entire fight, landed all the best punches. HBO's Harold Lederman had it 118-110 for Dawson.

Dawson (29-0, 17 KO) clearly won the fight in my estimation, and everyone watching in our live thread agreed, so it's not just me. The scores sort of seemed as if they were overly cautious after the controversy of the first Dawson-Johnson fight. I felt the second Mayweather-Castillo fight had the same thing in a way.

But the right man won. Dawson made the 40-year-old Johnson look very old and slow for most of the fight. Johnson (49-13-2, 33 KO) never relented with his pressure, but he also never got anything established offensively.

Dawson's next move will be interesting. Hopkins and Jones are tied up, and past them there just aren't many names at 175. Dawson could fight the Pascal-Diaconu winner, or fight Tavoris Cloud. Both fights are attractive, but aren't money bouts, especially considering I doubt Dawson would go to Montreal to fight Jean Pascal, where it could do an excellent crowd.

Hats off to Dawson, who established himself for sure tonight. If there were any questions left, they should be gone now.