By Sammy Rozenberg
Miguel Cotto's hometown crowd at the Coliseo Roberto Clemente in San Juan, Puerto Rico was given a knockout win, but not the kind of knockout win that Cotto wanted to give them.
Miguel Cotto (29-0, 24 KOs) retained his WBA welterweight title by stopping Oktay Urkal (38-4, 11 KOs) in the eleventh round when Urkal's trainer Uli Wegner threw in the towel.
The fight was not the one-sided effort most expected. Urkal was never out of the fight, although he won very few rounds on the official scorecards. He was able to land plenty of punches that Cotto ate with no problem and was unable to stop the Puerto Rican champion from coming forward.
The two fighters clashed heads often, resulting in a cut opening up near Cotto's left eye. The referee took two points away from Urkal for using his head. The second point deduction came in the eleventh round, and in protest, Wegner threw in the towel.
After the fight was over, Wegner said the referee was allowing Cotto to throw illegal punches to the body, while penalizing his fighter for the slightest infraction, which prompted him to stop the fight.
Open scoring was used in the contest, meaning that the official scores were announced to the crowd after the conclusion of the fourth and eighth rounds. Wegner admitted that knowing the official scores played a role in his decision to stop the fight. The end result will set up a nice debate on why open scoring does nothing to benefit boxing.
The next stop is New York City's Madison Square Garden. On the eve of the Puerto Rican day parade, June 9, Cotto will face the toughest test of his career when he meets former undisputed welterweight champion Zab Judah.
Cotto has never faced a boxer on the level of a Zab Judah. When Judah brings his A-game to the ring, he is a very difficult man to beat. In his last bout, against recognized pound-for-pound kind Floyd Mayweather, Jr., he arguably won the first four rounds.
Mayweather was forced to change his fight strategy in order to turn the fight around and win a unanimous decision. As a result of a Judah low blow in the 10th round of the fight, an in-round brawl occurred between the corners of both fighters. The 10th round melee resulted in suspensions and heavy fines for Judah, and Mayweather's trainer/uncle Roger Mayweather.
Judah has been sitting on sidelines while waiting for the suspension handed down by the Nevada State Athletic Commission to run it's course. He is currently set for an easy tuneup in April to shake off some of the ring rust before the June date.
Neither man is a stranger to being rocked by a big punch, and that only makes the fight more interesting. Cotto fought a very quick boxer in Paulie Malignaggi last June and showed very little difficulty in winning the contest. Judah is a totally different kind of animal.
Malignaggi, with only 5 KOs to his credit, was not strong enough to keep Cotto from coming forward with hard punches and had to dig deep by using his boxing skills to survive to the final bell. There is more than enough punching power in Judah's hands to turn out Cotto's lights.
While Judah receives plenty of praise for his boxing skills and lighting fast hands, the most underestimated weapon in Judah's arsenal is his defense. He is quick enough with his defense to make it very hard for Cotto to land clean punches. Cotto has shown the ability to cut off the ring in past fights against Demarcus Corley, Paulie Malignaggi and Carlos Quintana.
Judah is a more experienced fighter than any of Cotto's previous opponents, but a major flaw in his armor is a lack of concentration during fights. After piling up an early lead in the fight with Mayweather, Judah let the fight slip through his fingers by letting Mayweather take over the entire contest after four rounds of action.
The most disappointing moment in Judah's career, more so than being stopped by Kostya Tszyu in two rounds, was his decision loss in January 06 to huge underdog Carlos Baldomir. The fight was viewed as a mismatch by most boxing experts and halfway through the fight, Judah lost control and allowed Baldomir to snatch his unified welterweight crown by stacking up the rounds towards a unanimous decision win.
A feather in Cotto's hat is his deadly punching power. Judah has never faced a fighter that hits as hard to the body as Cotto. Judah's body will certainly be tested that night. But, when a fighter goes to the body, he opens up his head. Judah is a very good counter puncher who will look to take advantage of such opportunities.
Riding a two-fight losing streak, Judah will be more focused than at any other point in his career. He needs a win to keep himself in the loop with the big welterweight names. Cotto is currently a red hot commodity. A win over him would catapult Judah right back to the top of the welterweight division.
Top Rank has brought Cotto along nicely with a solid assortment of opponents to polish his blossoming skills. Judah is the first major step towards fighting the big names like Shane Mosley, Antonio Margarito and Floyd Mayweather, Jr.
On the undercard,
In a battle of hard punching middleweights, Edison Miranda (28-1, 24KOs) came close to knocking out previously undefeated Allan Green (23-1, 16KOs), but was forced to settle for a unanimous decision when time ran out in the tenth round.
The fight was more of a chess match than the brawl most anticipated. A left hook by Green sent Miranda down for the first time in his career in the eight round. Miranda returned the favor in the final round by landing his hard right hand to put Green in trouble, knocking him down twice and beating on him until the sound of the final bell. The scores were 96-91, 96-91 and 97-90, all for Miranda.
