Roach Wants Immediate DQ for Low Blows in Pac vs. Cotto

Pacman "Pacman" Pacquiao Latest News from sportingnews.com Mon, 12 Oct 2009

Freddie Roach told the Philippine Daily Inquirer today that he wants to make sure that the referee is very strict about low blows in the Pacquiao/Cotto fight on November 14th, to the point where he will seek an automatic disqualification for the first low blow deemed intentional.

“Cotto tends to get dirty when the going gets tough in most of his fights and I don’t want that to happen,” Roach said. He added that he was concerned about the choice of referee in the bout, mentioning that Puerto Rican ref Joe Cortez was in the running for the job and he didn't want Cortez to let Cotto get away with any roughhouse tactics. I guess Freddie thinks that all Puerto Ricans are good pals and okay with the low-blow thing.

Dubious Puerto Rican connection or not, there is a precedent to cite concerning Cotto and low blows, most notably the Zab Judah fight, which Freddie mentions in this piece. In the video below, you can see the first low blow Cotto laid on Judah, which takes place at around 3:55 of the vid. Cotto recently had eaten a counter-left-uppercut from Zab that had stunned him, and the argument went (from Cotto bashers) that he landed this low shot to get some breathing room...

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