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By Jake Donovan - It will seem like old times at Madison Square Garden this weekend. Top welterweight Miguel Cotto plays the main room on the eve of the Puerto Rican Day Parade, appearing in the world’s most famous arena for the second time this year and sixth time overall in his career.
The one-two punch of a Cotto fight and the Puerto Rican Day parade runs for the fourth time in the past five years, with last year serving as the lone interruption in what has otherwise become a time honored boxing tradition.
But with Joshua Clottey standing in the opposite corner (Saturday, HBO,10:30PM ET), another tradition is unearthed – the days where top welterweights would actually face one another.
In recent years, there have been few who have been as involved in that party as Miguel Cotto.
Despite boasting the claim of beting the deepest division in boxing, getting two top welterweights to stand opposite one another for a sanctioned fight has proven to be a daunting task these days. Remove Cotto and Antonio Margarito, and you’re not left with a lot of notable welterweight matchups to have transpired in the past few years.
Fighting top welterweights has been commonplace for Cotto (33-1, 27KO) from the moment he arrived in the division late in 2006.
The Puerto Rican had previously spent his career facing the best of the rest at super lightweight, but never quite challenging the division’s top players, such as Ricky Hatton or Floyd Mayweather. His resume was stellar while on the way up, but seemed to have leveled off once an alphabet title found its way around his waist. [details]
The one-two punch of a Cotto fight and the Puerto Rican Day parade runs for the fourth time in the past five years, with last year serving as the lone interruption in what has otherwise become a time honored boxing tradition.
But with Joshua Clottey standing in the opposite corner (Saturday, HBO,10:30PM ET), another tradition is unearthed – the days where top welterweights would actually face one another.
In recent years, there have been few who have been as involved in that party as Miguel Cotto.
Despite boasting the claim of beting the deepest division in boxing, getting two top welterweights to stand opposite one another for a sanctioned fight has proven to be a daunting task these days. Remove Cotto and Antonio Margarito, and you’re not left with a lot of notable welterweight matchups to have transpired in the past few years.
Fighting top welterweights has been commonplace for Cotto (33-1, 27KO) from the moment he arrived in the division late in 2006.
The Puerto Rican had previously spent his career facing the best of the rest at super lightweight, but never quite challenging the division’s top players, such as Ricky Hatton or Floyd Mayweather. His resume was stellar while on the way up, but seemed to have leveled off once an alphabet title found its way around his waist. [details]
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