The evolution of miguel cotto

[No1]

After watching cotto beat the **** out of gomez at the weekend, i noticed how much cotto has improved in the last few years.
In the early stages of his career he was a one dimensional fighter, always ploding forward looking for hooks, with little defence and poor footwork.
Now he looks so much better, he has developed a superb powerful jab and can box very well when he chooses. As well as a better boxer his defence has improved greatly and now sometimes uses a philly shell type defence to counter punch like he did to mosley.
If this wasnt enough i've noticed he picks his shots even better now and doesnt waste that many punches.
Out of all the improvements i've listed the best improvment to miguel's game is his boxing brain.
I say this because now he thinks when he fights and has become methodical in his approach to beating his opponent. This was most evident in the mosley fight in the latter rounds when miguel realised he couldnt hurt mosley so boxed his way through instead of trying to match mosley power punch to power punch, which to old cotto would have done.
thanks for reading.

[UndeniableTruth]

He could always box tho man, but look this was still a beat down of somebody not on his level. Cotto could of done anything and still won that fight

[AntonTheMeh]

yeah.you must of seen like three fights of his hit up youtube if you want to be schooled on the fighter he's always been he's just returned to the promise land.

[xcaref]

Dang. I thought this was Cotto's evolution from Neanderthal to Cro Magnon. Has anyone noticed his extra large head, like it was too big for his body?

[Thread Stealer]

What is it with people always talking about how Cotto has changed so much from some brawler to a boxer?

Why do people fail to actually watch more fights from the past?

Cotto has ALWAYS been an effective boxer-puncher who can box on the backfoot and circle, or can apply pressure. It just depends on the opponent.

Hell, he spent the great majority of the Abdullaev fight boxing on the backfoot. Some people (not me) might call it "running".

This was back in 2005. And not the only fight where Cotto did more boxing than brawling

[Silencers]

Cotto started out as a boxer-puncher who put pressure on his opponents, he has been brawling a little more in the last few years though but he reverted back to his older style against Mosley and that's when he had his most success. His defense has improved but his overall style has remained pretty much the same.

[Konstantin]

Yeah Cotto showed he had a boxing brain a while ago when he totally shut off Abduelev's (sp?) offense by sticking and moving.

[el malo]

What is it with people always talking about how Cotto has changed so much from some brawler to a boxer?

Why do people fail to actually watch more fights from the past?

Cotto has ALWAYS been an effective boxer-puncher who can box on the backfoot and circle, or can apply pressure. It just depends on the opponent.

Hell, he spent the great majority of the Abdullaev fight boxing on the backfoot. Some people (not me) might call it "running".

This was back in 2005. And not the only fight where Cotto did more boxing than brawling

cosign, i just watch his fight with some dude named ceballos on the under card of dlh vs mosely. he showed all skills in that fight good jab. hook, combs etc. and it was similar to the abdulaev fight cuz he was fightin on the move untill about the 7 or 8th rnd he started beatin on him and the fight was stopped like vs gomez

[Günther]

He was absolutely spectacular on Saturday night.

[Gato2012]

I agree with those saying Cotto hasnt changed from some brawler. He never was a brawler. That was some unfair label put on him based on a few fights. Cotto adapts and does what he feels favors him. Cotto gave Carlos Maussa a boxing lesson back in the day. In his pro debut he boxed nicely and still caught the Doucet lovely and knocked him out. Cotto gave Ceballos and Bazan boxing lessons. Cotto blitzed and beat the **** out of Rocky Martinez in furios fashion though. He changes up his game. He can box or brawl. After the Corley and Torres fights everyone just sees him as some brawler. What he did against Gomez is nothing new if you have followed his entire career.