by Brent Matteo Alderson
Photo © Chris Cozzone/FightWireImages

The fight game would be doing a whole lot better if there were more fighters like Miguel Cotto around.  He carries himself well, makes for exciting fights, and relies on an offense that is based on power, accuracy, and one of the game’s best body attacks. To top it all off, he’s a big draw in America’s biggest city - New York.  And he’s had enough success in winning two alphabet titles and amassing a record of 28-0 (23), that it has become obvious that he’s the fighter meant to carry the mantel representing the Puerto Rican greats of the past.

I love watching Cotto fight and in his last outings against Carlos Quintana and Oktay Urkal, it looked like he’s even going to be better at welterweight than he was at junior welterweight.  As a purist there’s a few things about his career that bug me. First of all, both of his world title claims are kind of flimsy. To this day, the WBO title doesn’t have the respect of the other titles even though the organization has had a number of fine champions which were the best in their division such as Johnny Tapia, Naseem Hamed, and Marco Antonio Barrera. More times than not, the WBO title is looked upon as an alternative choice if other major title shots are not available.

Fighters like De La Hoya or Mayweather don’t go after WBO titles unless they need it for a special type of promotion as was the case when Oscar fought Felix Sturm. Usually the WBO title is for English Super-Middleweights, or fighters that aren’t quite ready to be at the top of the division, but want to increase their marketability and take a significant step toward being the best. This especially holds true for Cotto’s first title reign.  Kostya Tszyu was the only true champion in the division when Cotto won the vacant WBO strap that Zab Judah had vacated without any scruples.

Tszyu had unified the division and Cotto didn’t even beat a top ten guy to get his 140-pound title. Kelson Pinto was not, nor will he ever be a genuine top ten contender. Even a year after the loss to Cotto, Pinto lost a decision to a 42-year-old Vince Phillips. That claim to the junior-welterweight title had about as much legitimacy as Iran Barkley’s claim to the heavyweight championship after he beat Gerrie Coetzee in 1997 for something called the WBB Heavyweight title. 

Cotto’s second world championship isn’t quite as dubious since he beat a fighter who was ranked by Ring Magazine, but still isn’t a true world championship since Floyd Mayweather holds the true linear title. I know you guys are thinking this is the age old argument about how fractured titles have plagued the sport and so on, but I’m not campaigning that cause. I’m saying that even though he won two world championships and holds a record of 28-0, Cotto is really nothing more than a top contender with potential for greatness, but at the same time he still hasn’t beaten a championship caliber type of fighter.

Miguel isn’t quite a Joe Gamache (A Two-Time World champ With Questionable Championship Credentials), but I think Sugar Ray Leonard’s pre-Welterweight-title competition can compare with Miguel Cotto’s up to this point.

I’ll tell you something else, Zab Judah’s competition and titles have been of a significant higher pedigree.  Zab solidified his status as the IBF 140-pound champ with a knock out of Terron Millet, a fighter who had beaten Vince Philips, who knocked out Kostya Tszyu during his first 140-pound title reign. He also knocked out Cory Spinks in front of Spinks' hometown to become the linear undisputed Welterweight champ. A lot of guys in the media have been really negative about Judah’s career and I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that most of them had unrealistic expectations regarding his potential. 

Zab was Pernel Whitaker’s apprentice and a lot of people thought that with his combination of youth, speed, and power that he was going to be a great on the level with Sweet Pea, but those expectations were way too unrealistic.

Even though Zab lost the two biggest bouts of his career against Tszyu and Mayweather, he won the rematch with Spinks and gave a good performance against Mayweather. Zab is still an explosive puncher who is going to test Cotto. Just look at some of his performances in comparison to some of the other contenders. He annihilated Cosme Rivera in three rounds on the under card of Wright-Trinidad and Rivera just went life and death with Joel Julio, and Carlos Quintana’s reputation and ranking was primarily based on his win over the young Julio. Timothy Bradley, a promising young 140-pounder just recently went eight rounds with Jaime Angel on ShoBox and Judah took him out on in a round.

Throw in wins over Cory Spinks who happens to be one of top guys at 154-pounds at the moment, along with his wins over current WBC 140- pound champ Junior Witter and a still fresh Demarcus Corley and there’s no denying that Zab Judah is one of the best welterweights in world despite the fact that he has lost his last two fights and hasn’t scored a victory in almost two years.

It doesn’t matter.  Zab is fistic pedigree. 

Judah's dad was a world kick boxing champion and he was fortunate to have had the opportunity to train with and learn from Whitaker. He looked horrible against an ancient Rafael Pineda, but that fight came on short notice one month after the first Cory Spinks fight.  In the upset loss to Carlos Baldomir, it was obvious that he didn’t train properly. Zab is a small welterweight and he didn’t even make weight on his first try at the scales against Baldomir and it’s because he wasn’t properly prepared and his solid performance in his next outing against Floyd substantiated that.

Let me make one thing clear. I’m not a Zab Judah fan. I don’t think he’s a great fighter, but I was one of the few people in the media that felt Mayweather-Judah was a good match and still feel that Zab is one of the top five Welterweights in the World. He gave Mayweather the most competitive fight of his career save for the Castillo bouts, and Miguel Cotto isn’t exactly Sugar Ray Robinson. He may end up being great, but he’s not even close at this point.

Miguel was lucky in bout with DeMarcus Corley because he was a punch away from being knocked out by a fighter with average power at best and I won’t even mention his life and death struggle with Ricardo Torres or his war with Lovemore Ndou. Judah doesn’t exactly have a granite chin either.  He was stopped by Kostya Tzsyu in their 2001 battle, hurt by Carlos Baldomir, and probably would have been stopped by Mayweather if the near riot hadn’t occurred.  In addition he has been dropped by Jan Bergman, Terron Millet, and Cory Spinks.  Still, that’s what makes this fight so intriguing.  

Both of these guys are dangerous punchers with questionable chins and both of them are in their twenties.  Nigel Collins, the editor of Ring Magazine, also thinks the match is compelling and commented “Miguel is slower than Judah, but Zab is inconsistent.  He came out strong against Mayweather and fell apart, but it’s a big fight in his hometown and if he’s focused and can hold together I’d make him a very live underdog.”

A similar sentiment was echoed by Rick Reeno, the editor of BoxingScene.com.

“This fight is basically an audition for future meeting with Floyd Mayweather. We already know Floyd’s a level or two above Zab and this will be a kind of barometer for Miguel. Both of these guys have questionable chins and Judah is quicker, but he’s not as fundamentally sound and has a hard time staying focused for the course of a long fight," said Reeno.  "I think it’s going to be an exciting fight with both guys possibly hitting the deck.” 

Cotto’s potent body attack may pose problems for Judah, but I like Zab by knockout and feel like his edge in speed will enable him to land a couple of big power shots that will catch Cotto by surprise. Remember that speed kills and the punches that you don’t see are the kind that hurt you most.  I’m going with Zab’s speed over Cotto’s technical superiority in a fight that will give New York, and boxing - something to celebrate.    

Notes:

Diego Corrales is making a mistake going all the way up to 147-pounds.  He’s tall enough to carry the weight, but it usually represents something else when guys don’t want to sacrifice to make a lower weight. Sometimes fighters are successful as was Mike McCallum when he forwent 168-pound sand and went straight to 175-pounds after his second loss to James Toney, or Vinny Pazienza when he went to from 140 to 154.  Those guys did it because the level of competition was sub-par in their weight classes.  Fighters that move up because they are burned out usually don’t fare too well.

Brent Matteo Alderson, a graduate of UCLA, has been part of the staff at BoxingScene.com since 2004. Alderson's published work has appeared in publications such as Ring Magazine, KO, World Boxing, Boxing 2006, and Latin Boxing Magazine. Alderson has also been featured on the ESPN Classic television program “Who’s Number One?”  Please e-mail any comments to BoxingAficionado@aol.com