Boxing is not what it was. The sport, if it can still lay claim to being in that category, has been losing its appeal for some time.

Partly this is because of the physical and mental damage that boxing inflicts on its participants.

Muhammad Ali, the most revered of all boxers, is a living example of this.

Other sports have overtaken it in popularity, with TV moguls far more interested in football and Formula 1 motor sport.

The people who run boxing are also to blame.

Boxing SA is a mess, and internationally so many organisations claiming to represent the sport have sprouted that it is difficult to separate the legitimate from the sharks, if indeed any legitimacy still exists.

A fax machine in Budapest and a snappy title is often enough to start up a "world boxing body".

In the absence of any respected authority, promoters have taken over the running of the sport and these are people, for all their platitudes about the participants, for whom self interest is paramount.

But, once in a while, a fight comes along that gives the fans and the boxing people some hope that their sport is not about to go the way of all-in wrestling.

Such an occasion happened in Las Vegas - where else in boxing? - when Manny ''Pacman" Pacquiao delivered his sensational victory over Manuel Cotto early yesterday morning (SA time).

Though both men were fighting at the puny 66kg weight limit, it had all the glamour and hype of the legitimate heavyweight contests of the Ali-Foreman-Frazier era.

It's hard to recall another recent fight provoking as much debate and argument. Even Hillary Clinton got in on the act.

The enormity of this contest was such that the US secretary of state had to give her prediction on the fight on Friday, during a stopover in Manila.

Realising the awe in which Pacman is held in the Philippines, she did not hesitate to award the local hero the decision.

She proved to be more accurate in her judgement than some of the alleged experts we have been listening to in the build-up.

As it turned out, Pacman was never in danger of losing, from the time he dropped Cotto to his gloves in the third round with a short right hook.

Cotto is no mug, however.

He came right back in the fourth, but Pacquiao escaped being trapped on the ropes and, by the 11th round, the Filipino hero's speed and power had become too much for the Puerto Rican.

By the time the bell sounded for the penultimate round, Cotto's face had been battered "until it was an unrecognisable gargoyle", according to Ron Borges, of the Boston Herald.

That's a fair description of Pacquiao's opponent. Less than a minute later, it was all over, the referee saving Cotto from more punishment.

Back in the Philippines, meanwhile, the crime rate plummeted. According to Time magazine, which gave the outcome a certain inevitability with a huge article on Pacquiao ahead of the fight, the Philippines comes to a dead stop whenever the most popular man in the country steps into the ring