by David P. Greisman
Photo © Ed Mulholland/FightWireImages.com
Before the title belts and the headline bouts, before the Puerto Rican Day parades and the Madison Square Garden sellouts, Miguel Cotto was a prospect fighting underneath the stars.
They were feature attractions. Glances at a developing fighter. Previews of what was to come. Nine fights into his career, Cotto took out former contender Justin Juuko. The night, however, was about the rematch between Marco Antonio Barrera and Erik Morales. Cotto would return to the spotlight three months later, outpointing John Brown on the pay-per-view undercard to Oscar De La Hoya’s triumph over Fernando Vargas. Twelve months would pass until Cotto again shared the airwaves with “the Golden Boy.” Cotto ended the career of Demetrio Ceballos that night, while De La Hoya came up short against Shane Mosley.
Four years is an eternity. A presidential term. A college career. And Cotto, who was 17-0 after stopping Ceballos, has graduated beyond prospect status, past contender classification and into the superstar stratosphere.
Thirty-one wins, and his last two have been the biggest. Cotto’s bruising breakdown of Zab Judah in June played in front of 20,658. On Saturday, Cotto collided with Shane Mosley, and 15,251 witnessed a superstar turn supernova.
With jabs, right crosses and his vaunted left hooks, Cotto built up a lead against Mosley and held onto it. And as he wrestled and held his own against a fighter who some thought to be stronger, Cotto showed that he was there to stay. Between Judah and Mosley, Cotto has now taken out two lineal welterweight champions. Between Oscar De La Hoya and Floyd Mayweather Jr., there are two more to set his sights on.
De La Hoya has long been the standard setter for prizefighters, the pay-per-view attraction who dictates when, where and who he fights. Mayweather is attempting to build his own empire, one largely supported by HBO decision-makers seeking to market a transcendent pound-for-pound talent.
Cotto is the future.
From all indications, neither De La Hoya nor Mayweather plan to stick around the Sweet Science for much longer. Mayweather came out of a brief-lived retirement for next month’s pay-per-view extravaganza against Ricky Hatton. De La Hoya has announced his annual May mega-fight, though the opponent will not be named until after Mayweather-Hatton.
Both aim for spectacle. Cotto would provide the substance.
Cotto pulls in the fans, be it with his style of aggressive pursuit, thudding body shots and powerful punishment, or with the vulnerability that exists underneath such a relentless attacker. He has run through all who have been put in front of him, propelling his status beyond that of fellow welterweight beltholders Kermit Cintron and Paul Williams.
Mayweather is the champion. De La Hoya is the celebrity. One could use a challenger. The other desires credibility.
Hatton could defy the odds and upset Mayweather, an improbability leading to a probable rematch. But if Mayweather, as anticipated, handles Hatton next month, he will then have a bevy of boxers calling him out for a payday. And unless De La Hoya chooses to go to the well once more with an unnecessary rematch against “Pretty Boy Floyd,” Cotto is the one other name between 140 and 154 who can hold up his end of a marquee.
De La Hoya, like Mosley, is no longer the fighter who captured belts in numerous divisions, but he still wants to show himself capable of competing with the best. Mayweather proved too elusive. Cotto would stand in front of De La Hoya, head to head, left hook to left hook.
There are obstacles.
De La Hoya has referred to his wife Millie while declining a potential bout with Cotto, saying she has asked him not to fight anyone else from her native Puerto Rico. And De La Hoya has hinted that Hatton is next, though a rematch with Mayweather would surprise few.
Mayweather bought himself out of a prior contract with Top Rank promoter Bob Arum, who subsequently put out an $8 million offer for Mayweather to face Top Rank welterweight Antonio Margarito. Mayweather turned it down, and the prospects of Mayweather and Arum working out their differences are quite unlikely.
The Puerto Rican Day Parade is about seven months away. Madison Square Garden awaits Miguel Cotto, who has gone from pay-per-view special attractions to pay-per-view main events, from fighting under the stars to exploding onto the scene with the brightness of a supernova. With Mayweather and De La Hoya, he could take off at the speed of light.
The 10 Count
1. Cotto fought Mosley. Mayweather is scheduled to defend his championship against Hatton. Kermit Cintron and Paul Williams will probably face off in a unification bout early next year.
Antonio Margarito, once considered by some to be the most-feared welterweight out there, wasn’t just going to allow himself to be relegated to second fiddle.
Margarito needed just 158 seconds to demolish Golden Johnson on the undercard to Cotto-Mosley, a one-sided beatdown that consisted of Margarito launching 117 punches, landing 60 and sending Johnson to the canvas three times.
Clearly, Margarito was out to make a statement. Unfortunate for him it may just go unheard.
The top players at 147 are setting dates without waiting for “the Tijuana Tornado.” And whereas once Margarito held a title belt and, as such, also held some weight in the division, now he must wait in line for another shot. That’s not to say there aren’t interesting fights out there for the near future: potentially available welterweights include Andre Berto, Joshua Clottey and Zab Judah.
2. A new lightweight champion would have been anointed Saturday if not for the apparently inept scoring of two judges (and the third wasn’t much better).
For all intents and purposes, Jose Armando Santa Cruz appeared to have easily outpointed rusty “Ring Magazine” champ Joel Casamayor. Frank Lombardi and Ron McNair, however, felt Casamayor was dominating Santa Cruz with a spectacular offense that favored clinching over punching. Lombardi and McNair saw the fight 114-113 for Casamayor, meaning they gave him an astonishing seven rounds (Casamayor hit the mat from a flash knockdown in the first heat). Tony Paolillo favored Santa Cruz, albeit by a narrow margin of 114-113.
No matter who won the bout, the lightweight division would end up stuck in a situation whereby the champion wasn’t necessarily the best fighter in his weight class. That description is currently best suited for Juan Diaz, who holds three of four world title belts and who has looked spectacular of late. The lineal “Ring Magazine” champion, Casamayor, had been inactive for 13 months, and on Saturday it clearly showed. Santa Cruz, meanwhile, ends up with little but a moral victory that won’t work to his advantage whatsoever.
Had Santa Cruz been awarded his proper victory, he could have eventually leveraged his non-sanctioning-body belt into a shot at Diaz or whomever else ends up the consensus top 135-pounder. Without, he is not only just another fighter in a deep division, he is also carrying on his ledger losses to Fernando Trejo, David Diaz and, despite the opinions of most, Casamayor.
3. The opening bout on the televised pay-per-view undercard saw junior welterweight prospect Victor Ortiz make short work of former 140-pound belt-holder Carlos Maussa, dropping Maussa with a single left cross and putting him down for the count less than two minutes into the first round.
The prompt ending was the best possible outcome for Ortiz, who was scheduled to battle under his biggest spotlight yet against an exceptionally awkward foe. Ortiz’s next outing will probably be a challenge of World Boxing Organization titlist Ricardo Torres, a rapid ascent for a boxer who just a year ago was appearing on “ShoBox” cards.
The junior welterweight division is bereft of top veteran contenders who would pose a significant threat to someone still developing as a fighter. Should Ortiz face and beat Torres, the best plan for him might be to fight often and against all comers, development similar to that which Juan Diaz underwent during the years in which Jose Luis Castillo and Diego Corrales controlled everything lightweight.
4. A note for HBO blow-by-blow announcer Jim Lampley, whose complaints about relatively inexperienced judges working Cotto-Mosley might have been tinged by the earlier Casamayor-Santa Cruz scoring controversy: Duane Ford had, at one point, judged as few title fights as has Wynn Kintz. Experience doesn’t come automatically.
5. Riddick Bowe seems to have placed his ridiculous boxing comeback on the back burner – no surprise, considering the return of “Big Daddy” has consisted of little beyond a 2004 stoppage of designated opponent Marcus Rhode and a 2005 split decision over clubfighter Billy Zumbrun. But he’s apparently not done with combat sports.
Yes, the former heavyweight champion is supposedly planning his mixed martial arts debut, according to Sherdog.com reporter Josh Gross. One imagines that even Butterbean shakes his head at Bowe’s prospects.
Bowe should be required to face Kevin “Kimbo Slice” Ferguson, the cult street fighter who in June submitted former boxer Ray Mercer via guillotine choke. Slice, by the way, made his true MMA debut Saturday with a 19-second victory over tomato can Bo Cantrell.
6. Kelly Pavlik should consider himself lucky after suffering in a strange accident last week cuts on his arms and hands that required 108 stitches to close, according to the Associated Press.
Pavlik was reportedly cleaning and repairing windows at his home in Youngstown, Ohio, when he cut himself while trying to open one of the windows. Pavlik is expected to have the stitches taken out this week, and soon afterward he will be allowed to begin training for his February rematch with Jermain Taylor.
It could’ve been worse: Sammy Sosa once went on the disabled list after hurting his back while sneezing. Not to be outdone, pitcher Joel Zumaya had to miss part of Major League Baseball’s 2006 playoffs because of wrist and forearm inflammation in his throwing arm caused by playing the “Guitar Hero” video game.
7. Laila Ali will follow her dazzling third-place showing on “Dancing with the Stars” with a gig as co-host of the new incarnation of “American Gladiators,” according to various articles by The Reporters Who Cover Television (apologies to Lisa de Moraes of The Washington Post).
Ali has seemingly been in semi-retirement, fighting once in 2006 and once more earlier this year. The undefeated super middleweight champion found her crossover appeal with her performance on “Dancing with the Stars,” making it into the show’s season finale, much further than Evander Holyfield had done in the dancing competition’s first season and further than Floyd Mayweather Jr. made it this season.
Ali will work alongside Hulk Hogan, brother.
8. Back to actual boxing: David Haye captured the cruiserweight championship with a seventh-round stoppage of Jean-Marc Mormeck, culminating a rise that had been delayed three years ago, when Haye, then a young prospect, lost via technical knockout to Carl Thompson.
Haye now has two options. He can make the jump to boxing’s marquee division, following up on his April testing of the heavyweight waters. Haye has the height at which his frame could benefit from additional pounds and no longer having to make the cruiserweight limit.
But the heavyweight temptation isn’t a new one – the fame and fortune associated with boxing’s biggest has drawn many, from Evander Holyfield and Michael Spinks to Roy Jones and James Toney. What would delight would be if Haye stuck around at cruiserweight, helping to bring attention to a division where the sheer depth of talent and potential for entertainment doesn’t match the general lack of airtime.
9. “The Contender” update: Sakio Bika and Jaidon Codrington waged war for eight rounds Tuesday, the two finalists in this third season of Mark Burnett’s boxing reality series battling toe-to-toe for $750,000 and recognition as the best of a crop of 16 super middleweights.
The action started early: Bika sent Codrington crashing down in the first round, though the knockdown appeared to be more a factor of Codrington’s balance than Bika’s bashing. Codrington rose, and soon after Bika fell, indicative of the give-and-take that would take place as long as both men remained standing.
In the end, it was Bika triumphant, with referee Dick Flaherty waving the proceedings off once it became clear that Codrington was dazed on his feet and unable to defend himself. And in the end, this was the kind of action that showed that “The Contender” could be a hit without background music, edited fights, sound effects and contrived situations. The first season made Sergio Mora a star by virtue of mainstream exposure. Both Bika and Codrington deserve more than 15 minutes, along with shots at contending in a division that will soon be left wide open.
10. The undercard, meanwhile, produced few supporting stars a la Alfonso Gomez in the first season. Sam Soliman outpointed Wayne Johnsen in the television show’s consolation fight, but Soliman is a veteran whose marketability doesn’t match his ability to make waves at 168. In other action, David Banks scored a majority decision over Donny McCrary, Brian Vera won a six-round decision over Max Alexander, and Miguel Hernandez lost a decision to non-“Contender” Aslanbek Kodzoev.
David P. Greisman’s weekly column, “Fighting Words,” appears every Monday on BoxingScene.com. He may be reached for questions and comments at fightingwords1@gmail.com
