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Miguel Cotto Vs Sergio Martinez: OFFICIAL HBO PPV BOXING BREAKDOWN – BOXING NEWS

By Geno McGahee

On Saturday, HBO PPV will present a showdown where one man’s career will move onto another big payday and another man will be forced out of the sport. In one corner, you have the middleweight champion, Sergio Martinez, 51-2-2, 28 KO’s, facing off against Miguel Cotto, 38-4, 31 KO’s, in New York City, a second home to the Puerto Rican superstar.

For Cotto, stardom came rather easily. Felix Trinidad, the Puerto Rican legend, was nearing the end of his run, leaving room for the next big thing to fill that void. Cotto was it. With power in both hands, aggression, and a fearless style, he quickly gained ground as an attraction and as a very marketable fighter.

Cotto would strike gold in the light welterweight division, taking home the WBO version of the strap and beating some notable opponents along the way, including Paulie Malignaggi, Randall Bailey and Ricardo Torres. In 2006, the bigger names would come in the welterweight division and Cotto the PPV attraction was born, stopping Zab Judah, and out-pointing Shane Mosley. In 2008, the biggest event in the life of the fighter would occur when he faced off against the durable and “most avoided fighter”, Antonio Margarito. It would be Cotto’s first defeat.

It was a vicious beating where Cotto was bloodied and swollen. He looked more like the victim of a car accident where he went through the windshield than a losing boxer. It would be revealed later that Margarito was using plaster in his hand wraps. Despite this discovery, the loss was kept on the Cotto record, and the most amazing thing was that the cheater went on to make millions more with opportunities that others would have been denied. Panama Lewis comes to mind. It turned out that plastering his hands was the best business move he’d ever made, and it left the biggest impression on the career of Cotto and he never fully recovered.

In 2009, Cotto would be knocked out by Manny Pacquiao. There were many factors going into it. The ghost of Margarito, the weight that he had to drop, and some personal issues, but whatever the case, Cotto would not be in the fight and lose via TKO in the final round. After three straight wins, including one over Antonio Margarito in a rematch, the biggest opportunity would arise.

On May 5th, 2012, Cotto would surpass expectations and give Floyd Mayweather, JR., a run for his money, losing late in the fight and dropping a decision, but it turned into a rebirth for him. To those that thought that he was a spent force, Cotto changed their minds. He was now being spoken of as a pound for pound top guy again, but the fall came as quickly as the rise. The unheralded Austin Trout would outbox Cotto and take an easy 12 round win, bringing back the reality that the career of Cotto as an elite fighter had come to an end. This is boxing though, and we are all nostalgic.

Under the guidance of Freddie Roach, Cotto returned to batter the overmatched Delvin Rodriguez, leading to this match with Martinez. The HBO commentary team were exclaiming that he looked fantastic and that the real Cotto had returned, but it may have been more of what Rodriguez wasn’t rather than what Cotto was. We’ll find out more on Saturday night.

Martinez has not had an easy road to the top. His first defeat was to Antonio Margarito, and ANY victory by Margarito has to be questioned. Without the plaster in his mitts, he was unable to hurt anybody. It’s fair to say that his gloves were loaded when he stepped into the ring with Martinez in 2000.

Fighting in obscurity, Martinez remained under the radar. An opportunity on a PPV undercard turned into a robbery. After knocking out Kermit Cintron, the fight was allowed to continue. Martinez dominated, but the judges scored it a draw. The fix was in and it screwed Martinez. His luck would continue when he would lose a highly disputed decision to Paul Williams. He just kept coming up short.

In 2010, Martinez would make the move to the middleweight division and face the power-punching Kelly Pavlik. He out-boxed and then battered Pavlik en route to a unanimous decision. In his next fight, he left no doubt by knocking out Paul Williams in two rounds. His demands for a Floyd Mayweather, JR., match were met with silence, but he forged on, beating the contenders that he was mandated to face, leading to a PPV showdown with the largest middleweight contender in the world, Julio Cesar Chavez, JR.

For 11 rounds, Martinez used his boxing skills to dominate the slower Chavez, JR., but the pressure and size of the challenger would catch up with the champ and so would a left hook that dropped Martinez hard in the final round. He would arise and struggle to make it to the end, but he did it, and he took home the decision win. That fight is the bout that many are pointing to as the reason why he won’t be Cotto. It took too much out of him as evidenced by his next fight against Martin Murray, where he was dropped and eked by with a decision win. It would come out later that Martinez had multiple injuries in that fight, but there is still a big question mark lingering over his head.

On Saturday night, the crowd will be in the corner of Cotto. Under the tutelage of Roach, expect him to be more confident, but he is moving up to the 160 pound class and Martinez was able to deal with a slow, plodding fighter like Kelly Pavlik. Roach can’t reset Cotto back to his old skills. He is dealing with a powerful older fighter and he will have issues with the mobility of Martinez.

Martinez has great mental toughness as well. He has been dropped before but he gets up and he fights on with any ill effect. Against Cotto, expect Martinez to try to use his jab and stay safe early. It’s no secret that Cotto tires late in fights. It has happened throughout his career. This will give Martinez opportunities to get that stoppage he wants. Although Cotto looked good against Rodriguez, he had issues with Trout and Trout does not have the skill set of a Martinez or the size.

When the Cotto-Martinez bout was first announced, my initial pick was Cotto by knockout, but I was strictly going on “you’re only as good as your last performance,” and when you factor in everything, the picture begins to clear. Martinez is going to use his mobility and jab to befuddle the aggressive Cotto. Eventually, Cotto will get into his “there is no hope” mode and just look for the final bell. Martinez may allow him to cruise to the finish line, taking a wide decision win. The win may finally mean a Martinez – Mayweather JR match, but I wouldn’t count on it.

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