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Firstly, I don't post all too often here, but I do read as many threads as I can.. especially when they're regarding the welterweight division, as that's the division I personally find the most entertaining (although the MW division has started to pull me in lately)
I've been a huge Miguel Cotto fan since his 140lb days, but I don't claim to be a Miguel Cotto expert, nor do I claim to ever know how he is mentally because personally.. I think only Miguel, or any fighter, knows himself on that level, not us fans on the internet. We can speculate on what we believe, but those speculations could be baseless as we aren't mindreaders
I want to talk about the Pacquiao fight (not a rematch, but their first bout), but first I want to bring up a comment from Emmanuel Steward, where during Cotto's training he mentioned that Cotto's footwork and balance were a wreck, as if he almost had to retrain Cotto. Now, this is an overstatement as Cotto still knows how to box, but perhaps he meant that he had to train Miguel to "remember" the things that he had forgotten, possibly during the later rounds in his fight to Antonio Margarito. I'm not accusing Margarito of cheating, nor am I saying he was clean. That's not the point, what is the point: Cotto was beaten badly for the first time in his career, in that fight
It's commonly speculated in Boxing that once a fighter suffers his first knockout, especially if he's an undefeated fighter, it can change his psyche from there on, affecting his ability as a Boxer
I have seen almost every Miguel Cotto fight (multiple times!), thanks to the internet, and one thing I noticed post-Margarito about Miguel was that he stopped fighting behind his jab. In fact, his fight against Michael Jennings could have been detrimental to Cotto's progression as he was able to win that fight without using certain attributes that got him to his peak as a fighter
My thoughts are, regarding the Pacquiao fight: Did the version of Miguel Cotto that fought Pacquiao (and Clottey) in 2009, differ greatly in ability from the version in 2007, the one that fought Shane Mosley in a very competitive match?
When I watched Cotto vs Clottey and Pacquiao, I too noticed certain things after he became pressured: Balance issues, and footwork problems, the same things that Steward talked about during Cotto's training. Last night, his footwork and ring generalship seemed to be completely different from 2009, and reminded me of the old "Cutting off the ring" Cotto that faced Shane Mosley, and Alfonso Gomez
If Cotto's footwork and balance, jab and ring generalship, and quite possibly.. his CORNER, had been as good as last night (I think there's a clear difference from 2009), as when he faced Manny Pacquiao, do you think that fight would've ended as brutally as it did? Because I think Miguel looked completely lost after round 2. Some of you will probably make the argument that competition on the level of Yuri Foreman will make a fighter look better than they really are, which could be a valid point however a lot of people predicted Yuri to win that fight (including myself!). If that's the case, then you would take the opinion that Manny removed Cotto's ability to jab effectively, and removed his ability to cut the ring (which would be inaccurate, as during the beginning of his fight with Manny, he did cut the ring off for a few rounds)
It would be nice to not get my reputation lowered because I know a lot of people on these boards don't like Miguel Cotto, however I just want to have an intelligent discussion about this topic
Please comment/post your opinion
I've been a huge Miguel Cotto fan since his 140lb days, but I don't claim to be a Miguel Cotto expert, nor do I claim to ever know how he is mentally because personally.. I think only Miguel, or any fighter, knows himself on that level, not us fans on the internet. We can speculate on what we believe, but those speculations could be baseless as we aren't mindreaders
I want to talk about the Pacquiao fight (not a rematch, but their first bout), but first I want to bring up a comment from Emmanuel Steward, where during Cotto's training he mentioned that Cotto's footwork and balance were a wreck, as if he almost had to retrain Cotto. Now, this is an overstatement as Cotto still knows how to box, but perhaps he meant that he had to train Miguel to "remember" the things that he had forgotten, possibly during the later rounds in his fight to Antonio Margarito. I'm not accusing Margarito of cheating, nor am I saying he was clean. That's not the point, what is the point: Cotto was beaten badly for the first time in his career, in that fight
It's commonly speculated in Boxing that once a fighter suffers his first knockout, especially if he's an undefeated fighter, it can change his psyche from there on, affecting his ability as a Boxer
I have seen almost every Miguel Cotto fight (multiple times!), thanks to the internet, and one thing I noticed post-Margarito about Miguel was that he stopped fighting behind his jab. In fact, his fight against Michael Jennings could have been detrimental to Cotto's progression as he was able to win that fight without using certain attributes that got him to his peak as a fighter
My thoughts are, regarding the Pacquiao fight: Did the version of Miguel Cotto that fought Pacquiao (and Clottey) in 2009, differ greatly in ability from the version in 2007, the one that fought Shane Mosley in a very competitive match?
When I watched Cotto vs Clottey and Pacquiao, I too noticed certain things after he became pressured: Balance issues, and footwork problems, the same things that Steward talked about during Cotto's training. Last night, his footwork and ring generalship seemed to be completely different from 2009, and reminded me of the old "Cutting off the ring" Cotto that faced Shane Mosley, and Alfonso Gomez
If Cotto's footwork and balance, jab and ring generalship, and quite possibly.. his CORNER, had been as good as last night (I think there's a clear difference from 2009), as when he faced Manny Pacquiao, do you think that fight would've ended as brutally as it did? Because I think Miguel looked completely lost after round 2. Some of you will probably make the argument that competition on the level of Yuri Foreman will make a fighter look better than they really are, which could be a valid point however a lot of people predicted Yuri to win that fight (including myself!). If that's the case, then you would take the opinion that Manny removed Cotto's ability to jab effectively, and removed his ability to cut the ring (which would be inaccurate, as during the beginning of his fight with Manny, he did cut the ring off for a few rounds)
It would be nice to not get my reputation lowered because I know a lot of people on these boards don't like Miguel Cotto, however I just want to have an intelligent discussion about this topic
Please comment/post your opinion
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