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Cotto vs. Clottey: Is Miguel Ready for a Tough Fight Like This?
I got a lot of respect for WBO welterweight champion Miguel Cotto (33-1, 27 KOs) for taking on a tough opponent like Joshua Clottey (35-2, 20 KOs) as his next opponent on June 13th at New York’s Madison Square Garden. With the mostly soft competition that’s currently ranked below him in the World Boxing Organization, Cotto couldn’t be blamed if he wanted to take things easy and just defend his title against the mostly mediocre competition that is currently ranked in the top #15 in the division.
Cotto doesn’t believe in taking the easy way against lower level fighters which is why he’s decided to fight Clottey, 32, who is also the IBF welterweight champion,. However, it might end up biting Cotto in the backside by him taking on such a dangerous puncher like Clottey less than a year after being destroyed by Antonio Margarito in a 11th round stoppage in July 2008.
On the surface, Cotto did well for most of the fight, but at the end of the 10th Cotto was hurt by an uppercut thrown by Margarito. In the 11th, Margarito tore Cotto’s face up around his eyes, bloodying his nose badly and dropping Cotto twice in the round.
To his credit, Cotto got to his feet after taking a knee for the 2nd time in the round and was prepared to fight on despite his facing being covered with blood and looking like a mask. Cotto’s corner stepped in at that point and mercifully threw in the towel to prevent him from taking any more of a beating from Margarito.
As bad as the knockout was, no one would blame Cotto if he took the entire year off to recover from the severe beating. Instead, Cotto was matched up with Britain’s Michael Jennings, a soft touch brought in to Miguel and easy win, and Cotto wasted little time in knocking him out in the 5th round in an easy win in February 2009.
Cotto, 28, looked like the same fighter he was pre-Margarito. That’s all well and good, but with Jennings being such a poor opponent for Cotto, it did pretty much next to nothing to prove whether Cotto was still feeling the after effects of his beating from Margarito. Cotto took an awful lot of hard shots to the head in the Margarito fight, and it’s probably not the best of ideas to have Cotto matched so tough with little time between the bad knockout.
If it was a quick knockout loss then maybe it might not be such a big deal for Cotto. However, Cotto took a lot of punishment in the Margarito fight over a two round period of time late in the fight and I would have liked to have seen Cotto matched up a little easier than against a fighter like Clotty.
I could see Cotto being matched up with someone like Jesus Soto Karass or Kell Brook, but not against a tough fighter like Clottey, who gave Margarito a lot of problems in their fight in 2006 before injuring his hand. Clottey is fast, throws a lot of punches and has an excellent left hook and uppercut in his punch arsenal. These are the kinds of weapons that Cotto has problems with, especially the uppercut.
Cotto was hurt often in the last two rounds by Margarito’s uppercuts. Cotto likes to crowd his opponents at times and leaves himself open for the punch by leaning forward just enough to create space for that type of punch.
Clearly, Clottey has seen tapes of the Margarito fight and will be planning on using that (which he uses anyway as a regular part of his offense) punch to cause Cotto problems. I have bad feeling about this fight and I think Cotto is making a mistake in facing a tough fighter so soon.
Cotto doesn’t believe in taking the easy way against lower level fighters which is why he’s decided to fight Clottey, 32, who is also the IBF welterweight champion,. However, it might end up biting Cotto in the backside by him taking on such a dangerous puncher like Clottey less than a year after being destroyed by Antonio Margarito in a 11th round stoppage in July 2008.
On the surface, Cotto did well for most of the fight, but at the end of the 10th Cotto was hurt by an uppercut thrown by Margarito. In the 11th, Margarito tore Cotto’s face up around his eyes, bloodying his nose badly and dropping Cotto twice in the round.
To his credit, Cotto got to his feet after taking a knee for the 2nd time in the round and was prepared to fight on despite his facing being covered with blood and looking like a mask. Cotto’s corner stepped in at that point and mercifully threw in the towel to prevent him from taking any more of a beating from Margarito.
As bad as the knockout was, no one would blame Cotto if he took the entire year off to recover from the severe beating. Instead, Cotto was matched up with Britain’s Michael Jennings, a soft touch brought in to Miguel and easy win, and Cotto wasted little time in knocking him out in the 5th round in an easy win in February 2009.
Cotto, 28, looked like the same fighter he was pre-Margarito. That’s all well and good, but with Jennings being such a poor opponent for Cotto, it did pretty much next to nothing to prove whether Cotto was still feeling the after effects of his beating from Margarito. Cotto took an awful lot of hard shots to the head in the Margarito fight, and it’s probably not the best of ideas to have Cotto matched so tough with little time between the bad knockout.
If it was a quick knockout loss then maybe it might not be such a big deal for Cotto. However, Cotto took a lot of punishment in the Margarito fight over a two round period of time late in the fight and I would have liked to have seen Cotto matched up a little easier than against a fighter like Clotty.
I could see Cotto being matched up with someone like Jesus Soto Karass or Kell Brook, but not against a tough fighter like Clottey, who gave Margarito a lot of problems in their fight in 2006 before injuring his hand. Clottey is fast, throws a lot of punches and has an excellent left hook and uppercut in his punch arsenal. These are the kinds of weapons that Cotto has problems with, especially the uppercut.
Cotto was hurt often in the last two rounds by Margarito’s uppercuts. Cotto likes to crowd his opponents at times and leaves himself open for the punch by leaning forward just enough to create space for that type of punch.
Clearly, Clottey has seen tapes of the Margarito fight and will be planning on using that (which he uses anyway as a regular part of his offense) punch to cause Cotto problems. I have bad feeling about this fight and I think Cotto is making a mistake in facing a tough fighter so soon.
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