Team Cotto, Arum Media Interview In Florida

TEAM COTTO, ARUM MEDIA INTERVIEW IN FLORIDA PhilBoxing.com Thu, 22 Oct 2009 BOB ARUM: I think this call will be very enlightening. Miguel Cotto’s trainer, Joe Santiago is here and Miguel’s strength and conditioning Phil Landman is also here. I have been to both camps and I am so gratified to see two athletes getting themselves in peak condition. I want to see, more than anything else, a great fight on November 14. To have a great fight, you have to have two well-conditioned athletes and that’s what we have here. JOE SANTIAGO: This has been an excellent camp. We have worked very hard and our objectives have been met every way up to now. Everyone is happy and everyone has done everything that has been expected and we are looking pretty good. PHIL LANDMAN: For the most part the work has been on the same format as we have done before. We have changed a few things to address what Pacquiao is bringing to the fight. Miguel is looking super good and I am really happy with the work that has been done. Were you comfortable in the last fight, your first with Miguel, when there was trouble in the ring for Miguel? JOE SANTIAGO: That first time we were very conscious of what we needed to do. It was a team effort and everyone did their part. We all worked hard on what we needed to do. I think the preparation was good and on the night of the fight we were all doing what we were supposed to do. I am very grateful to the Cotto family for having me work on such an important event. This time around I think we are all going to be better for it. It’s a team effort and I think if we all do what we need to do Miguel will be fine and we’ll walk out a winner. Miguel seems very calm about everything. Does that rub off? JOE SANTIAGO: I think it was a very smart move by Miguel to move the whole team to Tampa for this fight and for the last fight. We are all in camp and very confident in what we are doing. Do you think Miguel will have trouble making 145? PHIL LANDMAN: 147 is Miguel’s natural weight so Miguel has no trouble getting to that weight. I was never with him at 140, but the stories I have heard I think it will just take a little more training for him to get to the weight. He has come in twice at 146 so we have no concern with that. Joe, have you felt pressure since taking over? JOE SANTIAGO: I have been around the camp for seven years, so I know how he prepares himself. I know him very well. The confidence that the Cotto family had in me, made me feel good. I know I was well prepared and I know I have the capacity to do this job and I think I just follow along what we’ve done before. What would a victory mean to the island of Puerto Rico? JOE SANTIAGO: It is huge. Everybody knows what Pacquiao has done and we know what Miguel is capable of doing. It would not only be huge for me and Miguel, but for everybody in Puerto Rico. It would be a huge win especially with what Pacquiao has done in his last few fights. When Freddie talks of 1st round knockouts, what do you think? BOB ARUM: Anything is possible. They fight from the beginning, and anything can happen. Miguel can knock Manny out in the first round and Manny can knock Miguel out in the first round. I don’t think it’s likely and I know that Freddie is a great trainer and he is also a great psychologist. A lot of what Freddie says is to get in camp Cotto’s heads. There is nothing wrong with that. That’s boxing. No one knows what can happen. The fight could go a lot of different ways and that’s why it’s going to be a great fight. A lot of people think the Margarito fight took a lot out of Miguel and maybe it showed in the Clottey fight… PHIL LANDMAN: For me, I commend him for coming in and fighting a tough guy like Clottey. Getting a cut like he did in the third round, he never thought about quitting and he toughed it out for twelve rounds and he won the fight. I think you have to look at it from that perspective and give him credit for it. JOE SANTIAGO: As far as we are concerned, the Margarito fight is over and done with. We are preparing for a new challenge and I see him just as hungry. We always go into win. The confidence when he goes up into the ring – I don’t see that changing. I don’t think many guys would have stood up to Clottey the way he was fighting with the cut and everything. I think you just have to look at the challenge ahead and we are preparing for that. BOB ARUM: I would like to say that Clottey is one of the best welterweights out there. For Miguel to come back after suffering that cut and to come back and pull out a victory, I think shows that Miguel is back but it also shows an absolutely brilliant performance. I don’t think people give Clottey a lot of credit for being the great fighter that he is. I think people should watch on December 5 on HBO where Joshua is fighting Quintana then you’ll see what a great fighter he is. After Clottey fight there was talk of some mistakes that Cotto made… JOE SANTIAGO: Sometimes in the corner we are a little late getting in and getting out and where we should be in between rounds. We had different people going in there and at times it was difficult to work. The way the New York Commission set up was a problem. Overall, it was just a question of how Chavez would get in there and how we want to use him and how we want to work. I think that having Joe Chavez here for most of the training camp is important. We are getting to know him and he is getting to know us and he knows how we work. That is going to be beneficial. There were really no mistakes about the way we wanted to do the fight. I think the strategy was fine. I have known him for seven years and I know they had talked about bringing in well-known trainers but I think the fact that I have known him a long time and he feels comfortable with me gave me an advantage over all those guys. I think it’s just a question of getting everybody on the same page and I think we’ve done that. JOE SANTIAGO: A few years back before Miguel fought Quintana, a lot of people thought Quintana could beat Miguel and he took a little affront to that, people picking Quintana to beat him. The night of the fight he was so in tune to what he wanted to do, he was so impressive. I think you will see that in him this time. A lot of people are picking Pacquiao to beat him and he is motivated by that. Without question, all the fighters want to be great and all the fighters want to be the best and Miguel has that little extra because the people don’t think he can win this fight. We know he can win this fight and he knows he can win this fight but he’ll have to show everyone what he’s capable of doing against this type of opponent. I think he will come out with a little more fire. JOE SANTIAGO: I think both guys want to show that they are the best. One is called the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world and we know we have the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world in Miguel Cotto and when that night comes and he wins, everyone will know that Puerto Rico does have the best pound-4-pound fighter in the world. Does Pacquiao struggling against Marquez give him confidence? JOE SANTIAGO: With all that Pacquiao has done lately you have to be impressed by that. We know what we are capable of doing and Miguel wants to show everyone and that’s why we work so hard in this camp. Different fighters and different things going on…all in know is that Cotto is the first true welterweight that he will have fought in his career that is young and still in his prime so that is what Pacquiao is facing. Has the cut healed? JOE SANTIAGO: We were very lucky on the night of the fight that we had two plastic surgeons there at the Garden and they were able to do their job and it came out very nice and we have not seen anything at all that has been wrong with his cut and we have had no issues with it in camp and I don’t think it will be an issue in the fight. We have 26 days to go to the fight. We are sparring three days a week. We are going to continue doing the same work we have done for the past few weeks. This next week we will work really hard because we will start toning it down the three weeks after that. We will be more intense about what we are doing but we won’t work as long. JOE SANTIAGO: Right now we are where we want to be weight-wise. He is working hard. There is a certain weight he needs to be on…the commission in Puerto Rico requires that and we are right on there. If you want to know about our strategy, you’ll have to watch the fight on the 14th. That’s when you’ll see everything. Continued on Page 2: