Julio Cesar Chavez JR: The Miguel Cotto Challenge
By Jorge “BoxWrite” Garcia
On December 4th from Madison Square Garden in New York, New York, Miguel Cotto, 35-2, 28 KO’s, defends his light middleweight strap against the son of the legend Julio Cesar Chavez, JR., 41-0-1, 30 KO’s, in a 12 round bout. If the bout stands, the WBC is threatening to take Chavez, JR’s mandatory status at middleweight. If he goes through with the fight, it should be a very interesting fight.
Miguel Cotto will be an “old” 30 by the time December comes around to face a much younger and taller but not as talented Chavez, JR., in front of his home crowd. Cotto is trying to end his great career with some good performances to remove those haunting losses to both Antonio Margarito and Manny Pacquiao. He has had his fair share of success against the best in boxing but many wonder if his come forward style has worn out the pride of Puerto Rico.
All was going well for the Top Rank promoted fighter as he came to the ring for a highly anticipated fight against then top welterweight Antonio Margarito. Despite recent discoveries and accusations towards Margarito that will not take away, the fact that Cotto was brutally punished en route to his first loss via 11th round TKO.
Many people questioned if he would be the same after such a devastating loss due to the amount of punishment he absorbed throughout the fight. Determined to erase what had happened, Cotto only took 7 months to step back into the ring after that loss, many observers thought that was a bit premature for the proud Puerto Rican. But he came back with a vengeance stopping outclassed Michael Jennings by 5th round TKO in the all too familiar ring he will face Chavez JR.
Many fans and experts alike thought that Cotto was taking steps in the right direction by becoming more of a boxer/puncher than just a straight forward, phone booth fighter.
Coming after the confident booster, that was Jennings, Cotto took on rugged Ghana native Joshua Clottey for a portion of the world welterweight championship in a toe to toe war.
Cotto started good early on showing his quickness and compact punching by dropping Clottey late in the first round, which later became a crucial point in his favor. But as the fight wore on, blood surfaced once again in the face of Cotto making it tough for him to adjust and easier for Clottey to land big right hands that at times visibly hurt him.
Blame it on the cut or not, Cotto was dragged in into a vicious war against the granite chin Clottey for the better part of the 12 rounds, once again absorbing a lot of punishment. As hinted above, for those who haven’t seen the fight, Cotto came out of the fight with a controversial split decision win over an expected tough fighter but not without waking up the Margarito ghosts.
Being the fighter that he is, Cotto moved on just 5 months later to take on pound for pound king, Manny Pacquiao for his welterweight crown. Pacquiao is a beast but many people thought Cotto had enough to derail the “Manny Express.” It didn’t happen. There is no shame in losing to arguably the best fighter from the current era of boxing but the way that he was manhandled was brutal to say the least. Cotto was down in the 3rd and 4th round but was savagely battered into submission granting Pacquiao a 12th round TKO in a one side fight.
Just two losses shouldn’t mean that a fighter is not good but the way that those losses where given has raised many concerns as to whether Cotto should hang up the gloves up.
On the other hand, Chavez, JR., hasn’t even faced anyone even remotely near Cotto’s quality and boxing experience for anyone to believe that he has a shot of winning. He will always live under the shadow of his legendary father unless he surpasses his greatness, which is a huge undertaking for the amateurish Chavez.
This is the part where I usually analyze some of his fights so let us begin…
Well, he hasn’t fought anyone.
His overblown record has only one name of any significance in undersized and shop worn John Duddy who he took a UD in his last fight. Chavez, JR., has some good punches but doesn’t use his height very well, likes to fight on the inside and he gets hit way too easy… sounds like Cotto’s game plan to me.
I’m not trying to knock the guy but his undeserved PPV headlining status and his generated hype has him facing a very tough opponent that I have trouble seeing him beating. Frankly, this fight will give us some answer to a lot of questions on both fighters.
First, if Cotto wins it will give him some confidence in taking another big fight, possibly a rematch against Margarito, before he calls it a day but if he loses, he might as well hang them up on the spot.
Secondly, if Chavez, JR., wins he will be regarded as legit fighter and at 24 he would have the ability to grow into a great fighter but if he loses, he might as well be called the Mexican Ty “Big Sky” Fields.
Read: Roy Jones JR: Pound for Pound Best Turned Clown
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