Did Sergio ruin his career because of weight disadvantage against JR?

[Blue Heffner]

No. But he's a great example of a fighter who wanted to be great. He realized he had to fight bigger men to get his name out there and more money, he did it. He took the risk. We can't say that about too many fighters.

[gee73]

As far as I know Sergio's knees never were 100% for years before that fight. Might have to do with soccer, many players injure their knees (ACL, MCL), especially when they are young.
Bad luck for Sergio, the knee seemed to be good before the Cotto fight, but now his knee is pretty much gone, he can't do certain moves now.

[Redd Foxx]

Injuries happen. We don't need to credential the injury. If anything, I'd say his floating style of footwork left him more prone to injury. When your feet aren't safely under you and you go to brace yourself from a punch, the legs take the pressure in a bad way.

[SunSpace]

The greatness of Cotto's performance against him that night is also underestimated. Everyone was quick to throw out the knee as an excuse, but, in my opinion, that version of Sergio could've reigned for a while longer, had it not been for Cotto.

Don't get me wrong; if Sergio thought he wouldn't be able to compete in the same way anymore, after that fight, then he had all the right to leave. But, I feel that, had he given it one more shot, he could've fought his way to another title opportunity.

I think it just didn't make sense for him, though. Cotto was too good for him, and you had people like GGG just itching for a fight. I believe Sergio concluded that he'd never be the best in the division again, so he saw it as pointless to continue.

[Redd Foxx]

The greatness of Cotto's performance against him that night is also underestimated. Everyone was quick to throw out the knee as an excuse, but, in my opinion, that version of Sergio could've reigned for a while longer, had it not been for Cotto.

Don't get me wrong; if Sergio thought he wouldn't be able to compete in the same way anymore, after that fight, then he had all the right to leave. But, I feel that, had he given it one more shot, he could've fought his way to another title opportunity.

I think it just didn't make sense for him, though. Cotto was too good for him, and you had people like GGG just itching for a fight. I believe Sergio concluded that he'd never be the best in the division again, so he saw it as pointless to continue.

That was the beginning of Cotto's "re-birth", but we can't, for even a moment, pretend like Sergio was anything but gone in that fight. He looked like a baby calf and you can see in the first 5 secs that he clearly couldn't move like a normal human being, let alone a professional boxer.

Acting that that win proves anything for Cotto is cheap as hell. And, I say that as someone who often stands up for Cotto.

[Box-Office]

I don't remember Jr putting Martinez in a Figure 4.


He was a high level athlete (soccer/cycling etc) and his body simply gave up on him.

[SunSpace]

That was the beginning of Cotto's "re-birth", but we can't, for even a moment, pretend like Sergio was anything but gone in that fight. He looked like a baby calf and you can see in the first 5 secs that he clearly couldn't move like a normal human being, let alone a professional boxer.

Acting that that win proves anything for Cotto is cheap as hell. And, I say that as someone who often stands up for Cotto.

We can agree to disagree on it, then. I thought Sergio was still Sergio, just outmatched by the better fighter, for the most part. Don't get me wrong; Martinez was extremely talented. But I always said Cotto would beat him, if they ever fought. People laughed at me, lol. I just never fell for the hype. Martinez had some good wins, but I never saw them as proving greatness.

For example, I thought Williams was mostly hype. And Pavlik had lots of issues in his life. I never ignore things like that. Sergio's wins over them didn't mean that much to me, even though everyone was hyping him as boxing's most feared fighter--to the point of claiming he'd easily beat Mayweather, even.

It's kinda the same with GGG. I have no doubt he's a tough challenge for anyone, but I don't believe that he's as great as his fights against low-quality opposition would lead us to believe. The day he fights someone on the top level who still has something left will be the day the hype is deflated. I'd love to be proven wrong, but that's how I see it. If everyone wants to do the eye-test with GGG, I'll do it as well, lol.

What I'm saying is that, yes, fans have the right to hold an asterisk over that win by Cotto, but I also have a right to disagree. I think a lot of that had to do more with mental games by Martinez and plain-old hating from boxing fans than with a legitimately crippling injury. Let's not forget that it was also Martinez who started the whole "diva" nickname in reference to Cotto. As for the actual fight, I saw that Martinez could still move very well; it was just that Cotto was far too good that night.

To be honest, it makes me wish Martinez had continued. It would've forced that credit, because I have no doubt Martinez could've still beat many people within that division.