posted November 13, 2009 at 13:00 EST in Boxing Articles
Inside the WBO Welterweight Title Fight - Miguel Angel Cotto
by Charles Jay
BetUS boxing betting odds:
WBO Welterweight Title (12 rds. - 147 lbs.)
November 14 -- Las Vegas
MANNY PACQUIAO -300MIGUEL ANGEL COTTO +200
Under 9.5 Rounds -145
Over 9.5 Rounds +115
COTTO (34-1, 27 KO's), the +200 underdog at BetUS, had a storied amateur career. His breakthrough came at the 1998 Junior World Championships (for boxers 16 and 17), where he had a second-place finish, and later he fought for Puerto Rico in the 2000 Olympics. He was looked upon as a surefire pro prospect when he turned pro with a one-round KO over Jason Doucet in February 2001. Cotto was steered carefully at first, as are many prospects, and went in against "trialhorses" like Arturo Rodriguez, Joshua Smith and Sammy Sparkman.
He gradually moved up in class, fighting higher-level opponent-types like Justin Juuko and John Brown, but when he knocked out veteran Rocky Martinez with a body shot in two rounds in June 2003, it was a signal of things to come.
Two fights later he scored a solid eighth-round TKO over Carlos Maussa (a future champion), then he ripped through Victoriano Sosa and won a decision over Lovemore N'Dou in an IBF eliminator before getting a chance to fight for the WBO 140-pound title against fellow unbeaten Kelson Pinto of Brazil. Cotto stopped Pinto in six rounds to win the crown, then the trouble started for him.
In his second title defense, he was matched against DeMarcus Corley, generally regarded as a light puncher, and he was staggered, which set off some very real concerns about his chin, and Cotto was considered rather lucky to be able to come back and stop Corley in the fifth round.
Seven months later Cotto knocked out undefeated Ricardo Torres in seven rounds, but not before Cotto was nailed and hurt again by the sharp-punching Torres. After dispatching Gianluca Branco and Paul Malignaggi, he made the move up to the welterweight division and captured the WBA title with a stoppage of Carlos Quintana in December 2006.
Cotto then started to take off a little. He stopped Zab Judah in eleven rounds, then won a 12-round decision over Shane Mosley in what was a great action-packed fight. The whole bubble for him burst in July of 2008, when he took on Antonio Margarito in a title defense.
In that fight, Cotto eschewed his aggressive style in favor of a retreat, scoring points against Margarito but becoming progressively weaker as the fight progressed. He eventually lost his lead on the scorecards and Margarito started to pummel him, to the point that the fight was stopped in the eleventh round. Subsequently, Margarito was caught with plaster on his wrapped hands before a fight with Mosley, and suspended for a year, which also touched off controversy as to whether he had done the same thing against Cotto. We will never know about it, but Cotto does hint that he thinks Margarito "loaded up" against him.
Nevertheless, Cotto lost a lot of luster in that defeat, but still wound up getting a chance to fight for the vacant WBO welterweight title after that, stopping a very ordinary Michael Jennings in five rounds in what looked like a completely manufactured opportunity.
In his last fight, on June 13, he floored tough Joshua Clottey with a jab in the first round, then sustained a cut two rounds later, and had a struggle on his hands, with an interesting back-and-forth effort that resulted in a split decision win. Judges Don Trell (116-111) and John McKale (115-112) had it for Cotto, while Tom Miller scored it 114-113 for Clottey. That was his first fight without his uncle and trainer, Evangelista Cotto, with whom he reportedly had a violent falling-out. Joe Santiago took over as the head man in camp and in the corner.
