By Mark Vester

WBO welterweight champion Miguel Cotto felt a sense of duty to finish his fight with Joshua Clottey last Saturday at New York’s Madison Square Garden. In the early rounds, Cotto suffered a serious cut above his left eye from a clash of heads and the blood flowed heavy for most of the fight.

There has been some criticism that Cotto, or his corner, should have allowed the doctor to stop the fight because of the serious nature of the cut and Cotto’s left eye being impaired due to the river of blood coming down. He was able to finish the fight and won a spit-decision on the cards.

“I prepared myself for what happened, for a war, and I was not going to allow an injury to stop the fight. I was not going to throw everything away and lose what I had worked for. My vision wasn’t the best, but I wanted to continue fighting. Besides, there was an audience there and it was my responsibility to give them a fight. With that in mind, and my family in mind, I finished the fight," Cotto told Primera Hora.

Cotto expects at least two to three months for the cut to heal He should be ready to fight by mid-November. His promoter, Bob Arum of Top Rank, is trying to match him with Manny Pacquiao on November 14 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. He is willing to fight Pacquiao under the right deal.

“We still don’t know anything concrete. I must sit down and talk with [Top Rank]. If the conditions are acceptable, we will agree to the fight,” Cotto said.

The bout with Clottey was his first with new trainer Joe Santiago and new cutman Joe Chavez. There are rumors going around that Emanuel Steward may come on board with Cotto’s team for the Pacquiao fight. Cotto would not confirm or deny the talk.

"Everything that might be beneficial for my career, we are going to discuss.  Nevertheless, I have that to say that I am very pleased and I’m very fond of the work by my team,” said Cotto.

"Mistakes, we all committed them. There are things that have to discuss and to resolve. There are things that I realized during the fight and they realized during the fight. We are a team and as a team we will resolve everything.”

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