Weekend Wake Up: Pacquiao, Jennings, Gerhart Star

What Manny Pacquiao did to Miguel Cotto with his fists of lightning was far more impressive than his 12th round TKO reflected. Pacquiao dominated throughout, with early knockdowns and late-round barrages that left more questions about why the fight wasn’t stopped sooner than who the victor would be. This result may actually spur more wondering about another fighter’s legacy in the short term, as the clamoring that followed the final round last night was for a Floyd Mayweather-Pacquiao megafight. Signs point to that being at least a possibility; for the casual sports fan who can ignore the inevitable “Will this fight save boxing?” storyline, that has the makings of the best bout in recent history. In the meantime, we can read Shoefly’s brilliant essay on Pacquiao’s greatness and marvel at how good he has already been.Young Money, Baby. Before Pacquiao lit up Vegas, Brandon Jennings was busy shining bright. He torched the Golden State Warriors for 55 points, and led his Milwaukee Bucks to a 129-125 win that had research departments scrambling: Jennings scored the most points by a rookie since Earl Monroe in 1968, and came within single shots of single-game rookie and under-21 scoring records held by guys named Chamberlain and James, respectively. Less than a month into his NBA career, Jennings is blowing by any conceivable hype, and as The Baseline’s Sean Deveney writes, stardom is the next step.

Then Fall Carroll. Toby Gerhart should have a nickname, no? I propose “The Stanford Stake.” After all, he was driven repeatedly into USC’s heart on Saturday, and it is clear at this point that the Trojans we once knew as werewolves in cardinal and gold are unquestionably dead. The nation’s leading rusher went for 178 yards and three touchdowns in Stanford’s 55-21 annihilation of the Boys of Troy, who were so inept that Jim Harbaugh went for two up 48-21 to score 50, failed, and made that a footnote when his team scored their fourth touchdown in a 27-point fourth quarter. More on this in The Hangover Cure later, to be sure.

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