Skillwise: how the hell is Cotto past his prime?

[Aiwass]

Everytime somebody loses their "past their prime". Cotto was a stalking fighter who overpowered guys at 140 and 147, now he's fighting at 154 and it no longer works at good as it did. That does not mean he's "past his prime" Roy Jones Jr is past his prime, Cotto is just fighting at a weight class where his tactics don't work as effectively. Cotto is actually skillwise a better boxer then he was at 140.

If a young champion like Brandon Rios moved up to 154, things wouldn't look so nice, same goes for Danny Garcia. If Arce moved up to 135 he would look "washed up and rusty". Do you idiots not understand the science of boxing in that when a fighter moves up in weight class again and again he's not as effective as he was prior? That rule goes for everybody.

Cotto is not washed up and would never have beaten Trout, I said it 4 months ago. You can't "stalk" guys who are bigger and stronger then you.

[mic573]

Really Cotto clearly hasn't been the same since the first Margarito fight.

The Mayweather fight was his last hurrah in my opinion.

He looked slow,his punches had no power on them and his legs were weak from the 7th round on.

[hayZ]

Honestly Cotto has not looked the same since Margarito 1. He was in there with a young fighter, in his prime, who had good skills and had a significant size advantage. Cottos skills and heart have allowed him to still keep on winning but just watch his older fights dude. He is a smarter fighter now imo but his physical abilities are no longer what they were. Blame Margarito, the cheating scumbag.

[FightScorer]

Fights are deceptive. You can't just look at a fighter's 'last fight' and think. Oh wow he still got it.

Great example is Lewis vs Tyson. The reason Lennox looked so good was because Tyson was beyond shot. The truth of the matter was that Lewis was past prime and heading into shot status as well. Any HW fan could have seen it.
It took Lewis 8 rounds to get to Tyson, he no longer threw combinations, his jab was moving at a 70% pace as compare to his prime days of 96-end of 2000, he no longer followed up on his upper cuts with right hands and he had to resort to leaning because his stamina issues was surfacing at that age.

Lennox was effectively shot after Rahman I. The reason he dominated Rahman II and Tyson+Vitali was because of his courage,heart,and determination. Those weren't even the real Lewis.

[Aiwass]

Really Cotto clearly hasn't been the same since the first Margarito fight.

The Mayweather fight was his last hurrah in my opinion.

He looked slow,his punches had no power on them and his legs were weak from the 7th round on.

You probably didn't start watching Cotto until the Margarito fight. Your last paragraph was stupid as well.

First off Cotto is a better fighter before the Margarito fight, he's fought BETTER COMPETITION post Margarito. Can you compare Mayweather, Pacquiao, Trout to Carlos Quintana, Oktay Urkal and 4 round fighter Zab Judah?

Cotto has ALWAYS bad poor stamina around the 6-7th round in every fight, the only difference is now he's fighting guys who hit back so the stamnia factor is more compelling. Cotto has never been that fast, his style was to overpower guys and stalk them. It doesn't work on people like Austin Trout who will probably be a MIDDLEWEIGHT next year.

Anybody who actually knows boxing and are not "win/lose nerds" like you and looks at a person's skill set knows Cotto isn't washed up. He's better then he was at 140. Do you expect him to pound on a guy who's virtually a middleweight like he did frail little Kelson Pinto?

[Aiwass]

Honestly Cotto has not looked the same since Margarito 1. He was in there with a young fighter, in his prime, who had good skills and had a significant size advantage. Cottos skills and heart have allowed him to still keep on winning but just watch his older fights dude. He is a smarter fighter now imo but his physical abilities are no longer what they were. Blame Margarito, the cheating scumbag.

When you call somebody past their prime, you analyze the fighter not who there fighting. Trout beats anybody Cotto has fought with the exception of Pacquiao and Mayweather. I guess you idiots would except him to go stalk and overwhelm Trout the same way he did Ricardo Torres?

[mic573]

You probably didn't start watching Cotto until the Margarito fight. Your last paragraph was stupid as well.

First off Cotto is a better fighter before the Margarito fight, he's fought BETTER COMPETITION post Margarito. Can you compare Mayweather, Pacquiao, Trout to Carlos Quintana, Oktay Urkal and 4 round fighter Zab Judah?

Cotto has ALWAYS bad poor stamina around the 6-7th round in every fight, the only difference is now he's fighting guys who hit back so the stamnia factor is more compelling. Cotto has never been that fast, his style was to overpower guys and stalk them. It doesn't work on people like Austin Trout who will probably be a MIDDLEWEIGHT next year.

Anybody who actually knows boxing and are not "win/lose nerds" like you and looks at a person's skill set knows Cotto isn't washed up. He's better then he was at 140. Do you expect him to pound on a guy who's virtually a middleweight like he did frail little Kelson Pinto?

Really the way you approached this debate clearly shows that there is no winning this debate with you. Get out of here with your wanna be insults. I been watching and have participated in this sport for over 20 years. Idiots like you who believe they know it all are the reason this board went to **** years ago.

[Jam Jars]

Cotto has always ha bad stamina i don't think he's been in a fight that went twelve without him backpeddling and surviving the last few rounds.

[frosty-g]

Really the way you approached this debate clearly shows that there is no winning this debate with you. Get out of here with your wanna be insults. I been watching and have participated in this sport for over 20 years. Idiots like you who believe they know it all are the reason this board went to **** years ago.

i have to agree with the other guy i'm afraid...

[Mato o Muero]

He's definitely past his prime. He's not a shot fighter but he isn't as good as he used to be. It's pretty obvious just from watching him.