* Astonishing to watch how the tables turned during Saturday night's big showdown. Miguel Cotto started as the bigger man, the stronger man and the puncher. He looked good taking the opening session, but as soon as Pacquiao started to unload those blazing combinations in round two, things changed in a hurry. And that second knockdown in the fourth effectively ended the fight as a contest. From then on it was a systematic beating with only Cotto's bravery keeping him upright.

* Seemed a little unfair that Cotto got so close to the final bell, but didn't hear it. The safety of the fighters must be paramount of course, but with that in mind why wasn't it stopped after round nine? Miguel was finished then and had nothing left to give. All that followed was more punishment.

* Pacquiao's body of work in the last 18 months has been just about perfect. In crushing David Diaz, Oscar De La Hoya, Ricky Hatton and Cotto, he lost just a round on my cards - the opener on Saturday night.

* Pacquiao truly is a freak of nature - if you didn't believe it before Saturday night, believe it now. Normally when smaller fighters go up in weight their speed and power tends to diminish. Not so in Manny's case. He's actually improved the higher he's gone. And there's an argument that says he looked better than ever in Las Vegas last week, both on the scales at 144lbs and in the ring on Saturday night.

* Floyd Mayweather Jr said on Monday that Pacquiao is "one-dimensional" with no versatility. If he believes that he could be in for a lot of trouble if they do meet. As Cotto said afterwards, it's the amount of punches and the angles they come from that is so difficult to deal with. The first knockdown came not from the first punch in a Pacman flurry, but the third or fourth. The speed, allied to the power, is the real killer.

* Love how Manny has started to refer to Freddie Roach as "Master Freddie Roach". Clearly a sense of humour as well as a fearsome work ethic and ability to learn.

* After watching HBO's excellent 24/7, you have to marvel at how Pacquiao can succeed with so many things going on around him, starting with the terrible typhoons that hit his homeland during training camp. Clearly the laid-back persona he displays outside the ring is a massive asset.

* According to several reports coming out of Vegas last week, Manny spent a couple of hours every day practising his singing for a post-fight concert at Mandalay Bay. Though having watched him warbling "Sometimes When We Touch" on the Jimmy Kimmel Show, I'd advise him not to give up his day job.

* It's been a long time since the P4P king was not only the best fighter in the sport, but also the most exciting and the classiest. The man amazes in so many ways - a gentleman outside the ropes, a chilling destroyer inside them.

* Pacquiao/Mayweather has to happen, and it has to happen now. The sport's history is littered with marquee match-ups that happened too late, or never happened at all. Lennox Lewis fought Mike Tyson when the latter was shot, and he never fought Riddick Bowe in the pros. Joe Calzaghe fought Roy Jones Jr and Bernard Hopkins when they were past their primes. And Jones and Hopkins are set to finally rematch in 2010 - eight years after they were haggling over the purse when they were mega attractions. If it doesn't happen it's also another occasion when boxing shoots itself in the foot. We're all set for back-to-back million-buy pay-per-view bouts, and if the big two meet boxing might well be on the front pages as well as the back.

* There appears to be two things getting in the way of Pacquiao/Mayweather happening in 2010 - Floyd's ego and the fact he'd have to negotiate with Bob Arum. If 'Money' really still believes he deserves the lion's share of the purse after Saturday night, he's delusional.

* Floyd has used a ton of reasons for avoiding certain bouts in the past, and one of them is cash. If the Mayweather mantra is: "if it makes money, it makes sense", then he can't duck this one. There's plenty to go round.