By Edward Chaykovsky
At the UIC Pavilion in Chicago, super featherweight Javier Fortuna (26-0-1, 19 KOs) landed a solid left hand in the fifth round to score a knockout over Abner Cotto (18-3, 8 KOs) after landing a big left hand.
After the fourth round ended, Fortuna took a swing at Cotto after the two boxers exchanged words. Several replays of the incident clearly showed that Fortuna's punch never landed, but Cotto walked back to his corner and it appeared that his coach was advising him to go down - and down Cotto went, face first on the mat.
The referee was not amused with Cotto's "performance" and ordered the boxer to get back to his feet - but he did deduct a point for Fortuna for the attempted swing.
Cotto is furious that anyone would suggest that he faked the knockdown to get Fortuna disqualified.
“It might looked like he didn’t touch me after the fourth ended, but he did. And it hurt. I thought I had him, but he hit me with a good left and that was it,” Cotto said.
Cotto also denied being dirty. Fortuna was hit with numerous low blows.
“I didn’t fight dirty,” Cotto said. “He’s a small fighter and I have long arms. That’s all. He was coming out strong at the beginning of every round, but so was I. I was moving. I was throwing punches. I felt I was really working him."