FanHouse Michael Jennings

Miguel Cotto made a strong case that he's the best welterweight in boxing Saturday night, thoroughly dominating an overmatched Michael Jennings with a fifth-round technical knockout victory at Madison Square Garden.

Cotto controlled the pace of the fight throughout. He calmly backed Jennings off with his jab in the first three rounds, and then knocked Jennings down twice in the fourth round. Although Jennings valiantly tried to keep fighting in the fifth round, Cotto knocked him down again again, and even though Jennings got up after the knockdown in the fifth round, he was wobbly, and the ref wisely stopped the fight.

Welcome to the FanHouse live blog of tonight's welterweight fight between Miguel Cotto and Michael Jennings, where we'll provide live, round-by-round updates of all the action.

The undercard is over. The Cotto-Jennings fight has started and the live blog begins below.

Every boxing fan knows that Miguel Cotto is one of the best welterweights in the world. But only the most hard-core of boxing fans know anything about the guy he'll fight on Saturday night, Michael Jennings.

In fact, Cotto himself acknowledged that even he didn't know much of anything about Jennings at the time that he signed on to fight him. Even in the time since he signed that contract, Cotto has only watched tapes of Jennings' two most recent fights.

As Michael Jennings prepares to take on Miguel Cotto for the WBO welterweight title on Saturday night, he understands that Cotto is a huge favorite. But he says that's just fine with him.

When Jennings talked to the British press about his thoughts on the Cotto fight, which will be by far the toughest test of his career, he said his status as the underdog makes him feel better about the fight.

On Saturday night, boxing fans can watch both Kelly Pavlik and Miguel Cotto for the price of one pay-per-view purchase, as Top Rank is offering an unusual promotion in which Pavlik's and Cotto's fights, held in separate arenas, will be part of one broadcast.

That's the good news. The bad news is that neither Pavlik (who fights Marco Antonio Rubio) nor Cotto (who fights Michael Jennings) is likely to face much of a challenge.

Miguel Cotto will box Michael Jennings on Saturday night for the WBO welterweight title, a fight promoted by Top Rank. But Cotto is currently furious with his promoters for the way they've supported Antonio Margarito, the disgraced boxer who was caught trying to insert a hardened pad into his hand wraps before he fought Shane Mosley.

Cotto's only loss is to Margarito, and many boxing observers believe Margarito won that fight because he cheated. But Top Rank is supporting Margarito and saying it will promote him in Mexico while he's banned in the United States.

The most frustrating part of being a Giants fan over the last three years has been the overwhelming amount of injuries. Not once in those three years have the Giants managed to play through a season without a significant injury. In fact, they'd consider it a good year if they only suffered a single significant injury.

Unfortunately, with a little over a week to go until the regular season begins, the Giants are once again facing those injury demons. It began early in the offseason when fullback Jim Finn was placed on injured reserve with a torn labrum and was promptly followed by cornerback Michael Stone going down with a hip injury.

Over the course of the next few weeks, the Giants lost tight end Darcy Johnson (knee), wide receiver Michael Jennings (Achilles), defensive tackle Marcus Bell (knee) and defensive end Dek Bake (back).

Murphy's Law states that "whatever can go wrong, will go wrong." Unfortunately, the New York football Giants are the epitome of Murphy's Law. Take for example Sam Madison. He had a great over the shoulder interception on an overthrown Steve McNair pass and later added an impressive open field tackle that saved a first down. It was shaping up to be a great night for the veteran cornerback until he went down with a pulled hamstring -- an injury that takes 4-6 weeks to heal properly.

What's the big deal? It was only one injury, right? Wrong!

Then there was wide receiver Michael Jennings, who was getting the start due to injuries (they are everywhere!) to Plaxico Burress and Sinorice Moss. Like Madison, he was looking great early in the game before being shot down with an injury of his own. Unfortunately, his injury was of the year-ending variety -- a ruptured Achilles.

Sticking with that theme was rookie wide receiver Steve Smith. His injury is the prime example of the Giants' luck -- he suffered a concussion on a touchdown. That's right, on a touchdown.

Did it end there? Of course not! Later on, while bracing himself for a fall, Will Demps dislocated his elbow. And while the severity has not yet been announced, it is possible that surgery is required and his season is also over.

Giants Training Camp Notebook is a cliff notes style post aimed at giving Giants fans up-to-date news about the most recent training camp practices.

- Many people thought cornerback Kevin Dockery was going to "break out" last year, but unfortunately that never happened. However, with the new season comes a new opportunity and so far Dockery is making the most of it. He had another good practice yesterday and his constant motor is earning him a ton of respect in the locker room.

- The Giants have a huge dilemma on their hands that doesn't involve injuries. Its punt returns and who is going to field them. They tried a variety of people yesterday including Michael Jennings, Ahmad Bradshaw, R.W. McQuarters and Sinorice Moss. Rookie Aaron Ross is also a consideration.

- Brandon Jacobs leads as intensely as he plays. Yesterday during sprints, he happened to notice that fullback Robert Douglas was merely jogging and it was on from there. Jacobs lit into Douglas and you can bet that he'll never jog during sprints again.

Fear not, Giants Training Camp Notebook has not been discontinued, it just went on a short hiatus. In the off chance it's actually something you enjoy, prepare to get your fill.

- Rookie cornerback Aaron Ross had a decent day today and had moments that reminded the Giants why they drafted him in the first round. Unfortunately, his evening practice was cut short when he went down with a hamstring injury.

- The Giants have been searching for some trickery over the last few practices, but it hasn't worked well and if today was any indication on how it's going to be, they should just forget about it.

Eli Manning lateraled the ball to second-year wide receiver Sinorice Moss who was supposed to throw it down field to Michael Jennings. Well, things didn't work out as they were planned and Moss ended up tossing the ball back toward Manning, only to have it intercepted by defensive tackle Fred Robbins.