Why Cotto took such beating against Pac, Marg etc......

cotto doesnt clinch.

1) cotto leans forward too much... that would be ok, but he is too stationary 2) right glove is suppose to protect the chin, cotto puts it at his temple 3) cotto doesn't have very good head movement when on offense or punching 4) cotto doesn't have good stamina and he doesn't know how to pace himself

Some very good analysis here. One thing I don't think anyone's noted yet is how Cotto tends to wind up his body punches when in close. Coupled with his low stance this leaves him very exposed to short uppercuts on the inside. Maybe not a massive flaw, but it certainly doesn't help. I certainly agree that Cotto's main flaw is his stance. His natural reaction to attack it seems is to stand his ground, go into a very wide stance and try to bob and weave out of the way whilst trading counter shots. Trouble is he's just not good enough defensively to do that and as a result gets caught far more than he should. This seems to be pretty ingrained in him though, so I'm not sure what if anything could be done to change this. Learning to clinch more and a tighter body attack maybe.

I think he needs to inherit clinching, he's way too clean to do that but I think he should because on those inside moments where he wasn't dominating he would be able to clinch and then keep banging away, all he does is give lateral movement but if he clinches there is less chance for punches toland and when you just move your upper lateral you allow the other guy to keep throwing while you keep just moving and more often than not you find yourself getting hit and not throwing shit back. I think Cotto needs to be more aggressive and inherit clinching, also he needs a new trainer u feel me and for the record I recently heard it was Buddy McGirt, I'd be pissed if that's official because Buddy wont let Cotto keep fighting too long before he stops it, Cotto is a warrior u feel me he comes to fight so I'd hate to see a moment where he's still willing to fight and doesn't look THAT busted up and Buddy throws in the damn towel.. Good post. I heard you the Boxing show before Crillz and i thought you spoke well. Yeah id worry about having McGirt with him, my main worry with McGirt is that he does not mold fighters he tries to change them, Malignaggi, he even tried to get Rahman fighting like he used to Lol. The thing with Roach that sets him aside from Mayweather/McGirt imo, is that he tries to smooth out the rough edges as appose to drastically chancge their style too much, Mayweather and McGirt seem intent of cloaning replica's of the way they fought, not that im advocating he should go with Roach, although that would not be a particularly bad idea, maybe someone like Steward would be good for Miguel as i know he has pointed out Cotto's stance problems in the past.

I think he needs to inherit clinching, he's way too clean to do that but I think he should because on those inside moments where he wasn't dominating he would be able to clinch and then keep banging away, all he does is give lateral movement but if he clinches there is less chance for punches toland and when you just move your upper lateral you allow the other guy to keep throwing while you keep just moving and more often than not you find yourself getting hit and not throwing shit back. I think Cotto needs to be more aggressive and inherit clinching, also he needs a new trainer u feel me and for the record I recently heard it was Buddy McGirt, I'd be pissed if that's official because Buddy wont let Cotto keep fighting too long before he stops it, Cotto is a warrior u feel me he comes to fight so I'd hate to see a moment where he's still willing to fight and doesn't look THAT busted up and Buddy throws in the damn towel..

great post and i agree with u on cotto stance green K

because of his eyebrows... it gets easily cut...

great thread and great analysis. He's been due for a corner change for years we need more threads like this. Nice one.............:boxing:

we need more threads like this.

great thread and great analysis. He's been due for a corner change for years

I see what you're saying, and it's a good analysis. I agree with putting too much weight on his lead foot, but Cotto gets hurt to the body frequently. And his defense is only solid against guys that don't throw big combinations. Pac and Margarito throw 5 and 6 punch combinations where the only way to negate the effectivness of those combos is to tie up, but Cotto tries to pick them off and his defense simply isn't good enough. Agree but do you reckon that, that would also be down to his stance aswell? i mean if you fight with your hands as high as Cotto does, surely you gonna expose a lot more body to the opponent? not to mention how square he fights and gives you both side of his body.

Cotto gets nothing but respect from me, he is a warrior.

I see what you're saying, and it's a good analysis. I agree with putting too much weight on his lead foot, but Cotto gets hurt to the body frequently. And his defense is only solid against guys that don't throw big combinations. Pac and Margarito throw 5 and 6 punch combinations where the only way to negate the effectivness of those combos is to tie up, but Cotto tries to pick them off and his defense simply isn't good enough.

not really no, he just folds under pressure it frightens him when he cant get someone off him with power too

Going into the Margarito fight i thought the fight was 50-50 because i have alway questioned Cotto's championship rounds stamina especially when i saw how he backed off Mosley in the last two rounds, So i knew the championship rounds would be a decisive factor in the Cotto/Margarito fight. The Pacquiao fight i just couldnt see how he would win the fight because the speed difference was too much, And Pac was very fresh from his last three fights while Cotto has two tough fights before he face Pac, The mental pressure part for me could be looked at in different ways especially with the plaster wrap fiasco surrounding Rito, I could care how mentally tough you are if you get hit with a plaster wrap with bad intentions then your body would fail you. Yes but you to factor in the amount of body punches Marg was sinking in throughout the fight which also took their toll on his stamina. I picked Margarito to win! despite being a Cotto fan, not because of stamina issues but because i felt Cotto was not illusive enough, a good enough ring general to avoid a high contact fight with Marg where by Marg's extra size would not be a factor, tbh i had my reservations about him beating Clottey for the same type of reason, that turned out to be extremely close to. I felt Pacquaio would win because of styles as much as i felt speed of hand and foot would be a factor, Cotto made Mosley look slow at times so i knew he was quick enough to live with Manny for speed, albeit maybe still not be as! quick. You see Miguel's style is to methodically come foward and pick his spots when to attack, he is not a seek and destroy fighter like a lot of people like to think he is, he closes distance slowly, not because he lacks footspeed but because its the way he fights, he likes to access the landscape and pick his spots before attacking, now against anyone! who has good ring generalship or knows how to use their legs you are going to have problems, hell the Malignaggi was on the table going into the last 3 rounds and Malignaggi used his legs, thats why im dont think having remarkable hand/footspeed, which Manny does have, is the only reason Cotto lost, Cotto could of struggled with a few top fighters who are able exploits how slowly he closes distance, why? because closing distance slowly allows the opponent to think about what there going to throw, where there going to move after throwing in order to be safe defensively, and the time to set there attack up, all this is without talking about Manny's Southpaw stance which is another vital reason why Cotto did not win, like i said Cotto puts too much weight on the lead foot, now against a lefty this is suicide, why? because your leaning into the power hand of the opponent, plus Manny is a guy that really turns his left hand over, he does not finish on the target, he finishes 6 inch past the target and when your leaning into the power hand its doubly worst. I said before the fight that Cotto would get raked with straight left hands and whilst Cotto did at times he also did a good job of avoiding a few of them, however what Manny did which was even more effective, and what still exploited his stance, was when Cotto leaned away from the left hand instead of pulling out after falling short Pac would stay in there and throw an uppercut which got him even closer then he would throw another straight left which Cotto could not avoid.

the reason i liked Cotto's fight with Mosley so good is because there were glimpses in there in which his style was running on optimum efficiency, i.e. stepping in with a hard jab to stun the opponent back, wherein u use the opponents timing against them, then cracking them with body shots and stepping out of the way, still taking some shots, but keeping it at a minimum.

Its never one thing that changes a fight or is the deciding factor, its an culmination of things, what you said is true about both those fighters but Marg was also able to get off because of the stylistics issues in the fight, not just because Cotto slowed down, mental pressure is also something that he had to deal with, that is a big part of why he capitulated at the end. Going into the Margarito fight i thought the fight was 50-50 because i have alway questioned Cotto's championship rounds stamina especially when i saw how he backed off Mosley in the last two rounds, So i knew the championship rounds would be a decisive factor in the Cotto/Margarito fight. The Pacquiao fight i just couldnt see how he would win the fight because the speed difference was too much, And Pac was very fresh from his last three fights while Cotto has two tough fights before he face Pac, The mental pressure part for me could be looked at in different ways especially with the plaster wrap fiasco surrounding Rito, I could care how mentally tough you are if you get hit with a plaster wrap with bad intentions then your body would fail you.

Cotto was too slow to compete against Pac, And he got tired against Margarito because his stamina issue was in question. Its never one thing that changes a fight or is the deciding factor, its an culmination of things, what you said is true about both those fighters but Marg was also able to get off because of the stylistics issues in the fight, not just because Cotto slowed down, mental pressure is also something that he had to deal with, that is a big part of why he capitulated at the end.

Cotto was too slow to compete against Pac, And he got tired against Margarito because his stamina issue was in question.

Very Insightful, excellent thread. Personally I think if he had a tighter guard i.e. Clottey style he would do well, he gets so offense oriented that he forgets or just chooses not to protect his chin. Also I think all the things you mention would have been things Cotto could have improved on after the Margarito fight, if he had a proper trainer. Also I'm one of the few who believes Cotto has always had these flaws even at 140 lbs, no one really capitalized on it til he started fighting better quality opponents at welterweight. Cheers, agree on what you said to. Its weird because ive tried to tell people before that Cotto does have decent defense, when i say that i mean he had the right kinda upper body movement and rhythmic ability to slip punches at times, but i guess strictly speaking no matter how you go about avoiding punches the basis for having a decent defense is essentially not getting hit, period, this is why i think Cotto's stance played a big part in his leaky defense, i think Cotto did the right things to be defensively good in terms of slipping etc but because his stance was so vulnerable that got overrided and he took punishment in the ring at times.