Fans were robbed Saturday night.

[SlySlickSmooth]

Well Martinez really had no answer for Cotto. Cotto responded well to everything, all Martinez was trying to do was hit a straight left but he couldnt land flash while Cotto seemed to land all his with great accuracy

[j-rod]

People paid $$$ and were LIED to as to Sergio's true condition. I love Cotto, and don't fault him for anything. Like I said, he did what anyone would have done. But please, Martinez was a sitting duck. Listen to Lampley and RJJ in Round 1. If I told you before the fight Cotto would drop Martinez 3 times in the first round, what would your response have been? Fandom aside, Cotto's victory needs a fat asterisk next to it.

[vman075]

I get the Cotto fans who were happy with the PPV, why not be, you got to watch your guy accomplish something great and more power to you. For me, as a guy without a real dog in the fight and just looking to watch a good fight, I'll admit I felt a little robbed. I just don't find a one-sided beating of a clearly impaired guy, that enjoyable.

I want to tread lightly on this as to not be labeled a hater, and I take nothing away from Cotto bc its not his responsibilty for Martinez to be healthy. That being said, the Martinez camp can say all they want that the knees had nothing to do with it but an impartial viewer could see that he was clearly not a man standing on healthy legs. Also when a trainer stops the fight because a guy who is coming off consecutive knee surgeries "knees are not responding" I tend to think he had an issue going into the fight. I just think they don't want to say "yea we've been lying to you for the past 4 months to help sell the fight"

[j-rod]

Spot on vman. And for those mentioning sparring and the knees, did you see or hear of any sparring by Sergio during camp, on 24/7? Word is he did little to none. Dude was mostly on a bike or an elyptical.

[_original_]

I would think that his knees must have been giving out on the regular during sparring for this fighht if they did so easily during the fight. And I hadn't heard anything like that of him during camp.

Did you hear about, or better yet, see any actual footage of Martinez sparring or doing any rigorous training for this fight like his past bouts? I really think Martinez (and DiBella) just wanted to cash out on this fight. Not Cotto's fault/problem, but it's a shame this farce was on PPV.

[Redd Foxx]

Anyone who couldn't see that the guy's knees were wrecked from the start shouldn't be discussing boxing. Cotto is cool and all but to celebrate this as a meaningful win is cheap as hell. Martinez couldn't move and it had nothing to do with Cotto. Sergio shouldn't have taken the fight in that condition.

[crold1]

I am a Cotto fan. He did exactly what he was supposed to do. But Saturday night he fought a DISABLED opponent. We were all lied to on Sergio's true status. He was shot. Let's keep this in perspective people.

http://www.badlefthook.com/2014/6/9/...re-than-cottos

EVERYONE knew there was a chance Martinez was mitigated. The whole premise of the fight was Cotto had a shot if Martinez was. No one should be disappointed. It met the paradigm for making the fight.

[savorduhflavor]

Cotto did good, he lit Martinez up. I look forward to seeing Cotto defend the belt and I hope that Sergio has a good talk with his team and calls it a day. Unless Cotto is on some schit, Martinez' punch resistance is not good enough for him to take punches anymore. Cotto hurt him with every punch he threw and I'm not calling Cotto weak but a man 10-15 pounds lighter than you should not be able to hurt you like that so easily. It reminded me of when Bradley fought Ruslan after he cut all that weight but Ruslan does hit like a mack truck too so....I dunno.

To me, this is more of an issue than the knee.

Sergio got hit high on the top of the head and continued to get the hell beat out of him in that round....his legs were gone, I'm sure the bum knee didn't help him recover either but the punch put him on spaghetti legs.

However, for the people who want to pull the Sergio is utterly shot card, the punch resistance for me, was the alarming thing. Every shot Cotto hit him with looked like it shook him up and Martinez's chin is solid. Only time I've seen him actually hurt was the Chavez fight, his knockdown's are purely balance related generally.

[GorgeousJorge]

Sergio Martinez was looking exactly like Sergio Martinez until he got clocked. After that Sergio Martinez became Amir Khan for the remainder of the fight

[Syf]

I get the Cotto fans who were happy with the PPV, why not be, you got to watch your guy accomplish something great and more power to you. For me, as a guy without a real dog in the fight and just looking to watch a good fight, I'll admit I felt a little robbed. I just don't find a one-sided beating of a clearly impaired guy, that enjoyable.

I want to tread lightly on this as to not be labeled a hater, and I take nothing away from Cotto bc its not his responsibilty for Martinez to be healthy. That being said, the Martinez camp can say all they want that the knees had nothing to do with it but an impartial viewer could see that he was clearly not a man standing on healthy legs. Also when a trainer stops the fight because a guy who is coming off consecutive knee surgeries "knees are not responding" I tend to think he had an issue going into the fight. I just think they don't want to say "yea we've been lying to you for the past 4 months to help sell the fight"

Good post. More or less where I'm at.

To me, this is more of an issue than the knee.

Sergio got hit high on the top of the head and continued to get the hell beat out of him in that round....his legs were gone, I'm sure the bum knee didn't help him recover either but the punch put him on spaghetti legs.

However, for the people who want to pull the Sergio is utterly shot card, the punch resistance for me, was the alarming thing. Every shot Cotto hit him with looked like it shook him up and Martinez's chin is solid. Only time I've seen him actually hurt was the Chavez fight, his knockdown's are purely balance related generally.

He was shook up by the first round, true.. but tgroughout the fight he did not have the same explosive movement that made him so dominant in his prime. His punches lacked momentum, and his defense (almost entirely based on his dynamic footwork and ring generalship) was all but a memory. The guy was shuffling around the ring, man. Go look at old tape of him and see how he used to glide around the ring. It's night and day. There was no glide it was all herkijerk.. and he nearly threw himself off balance with every lunging shot he threw. Lunging shots were his bread and butter in his prime btw. He was unsteady, slow, inactive, a shadow of himself. His balance was off before he even got in the ring.. If you don't have a solid base (legs) shots will get you down easier because your balance will be impaired.

I ordered the PPV and I feel a bit Bogarted as well... happy for Cotto but there it is.