By Miguel Rivera
Freddie Roach, the trainer of WBC middleweight champion Miguel Cotto (40-4, 33 KOs), is still predicting that his fighter is going to win, by knockout, when he defends his belt against Mexican superstar Saul "Canelo" Alvarez (45-1-1, 32 KOs) at a catch-weight of 155-pounds on November 21 at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas. The championship event will be produced and distributed live by HBO Pay-Per-View.
Roach has trained Cotto for his last three fights, all won by knockout, and he started training the Puerto Rican veteran after he suffered back to back defeats to Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Austin Trout.
Canelo also won his last three after suffering his own defeat to Mayweather in September 2013.
Canelo stopped Kirkland, had some struggles in a close win over Erislandy Lara and dominated Alfredo Angulo for a TKO victory.
Roach is not as impressed with Canelo's last win as most. Canelo has a vicious knockout of Kirkland. Roach says Kirkland was never a top fighter and he was returning from a long period of inactivity.
"We knocked out a former champion, a world class fighter. Kirkland is not a world class fighter and he was off for over a year," Roach.
Roach knows the fight will be tough, but sees a knockout ending in favor of his boxer.
“Miguel Cotto is going to get the knockout in the late rounds and I'm confident of that. I don’t mind people having an opinion on who the favorite is in the fight, because I have a perfect plan for Miguel to get the win," Roach said.