Miguel Cotto intends to climb those ring steps and demonstrate his ability in the squared circle, for what he says will be his last professional fight in the squared circle.
Cotto will bring the curtain down on a career that is sure to be immortalised in the boxing hall of fame, in the near future. Over the course of a professional career which has spanned 16 years.
Cotto has amassed four different world titles in separate weight divisions and he took on the best fighters of his era in the form of multi-weight champions, Manny Pacquiao, Floyd Mayweather Jr, Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez and Shane Mosely, to name a few.
He will be remembered fondly as one of the greatest combatants of this era. Cotto was a throwback fighter who took on all comers and his legend will roll on.
Puerto Rico’s Cotto will take on Sadam Ali at the Mecca of boxing in Madison Square Garden tomorrow night. Cotto will look to make the first defence of his WBO world jr middleweight strap that he won against Yoshihiro Kamegai in August.
Ali was not the opponent, Golden Boy Promotions originally had pencilled in for Cotto’s final fight. However, the marquee names of Errol Spence Jr, Mikey Garcia and Kell Brook all turned down the opportunity given any agreement for the Cotto fight would involve the fighter relinquishing promotional control to Golden Boy Promotions.
Cotto instead, had to settle for a fight on a much smaller scale against Sadam Ali. Ali boasts a record of 25-1 and his only previous attempt at the world championship came in the welterweight class.
Ali was ultimately unsuccessful in his fight against then WBO welterweight champion, Jessie Vargas. Vargas stopped Ali in the 9th round of their fight in Washington, D.C in March 2016.
It is difficult to see how Ali can have much of chance to potentially cause an upset. Cotto and Vargas operate in two separate realms in the punching power department. Cotto is a fighter who has scored knockouts while campaigning as a middleweight.
Additionally, the 37-year-old Cotto has shown no drastic signs of slippage, if his last performance is anything to go by. Cotto delivered a dominating performance which he outclassed his Japanese foe from bell to bell in his last performance against Yoshihiro Kamegai.
Cotto has improved leaps and bounds fundamentally, since teaming up with acclaimed trainer Freddie Roach in 2012. His ring generalship and use of angles have improved vastly, in particular.
Cotto’s keys to victories will be to make evident his size and strength advantages. Cotto has to force his smaller opponent to fight hard and gradually break him down. I expect if one too many of Cotto’s signature dynamite left hooks land repeatedly to the body; Ali will eventually call it quits.
On a final note, from all at Boxing-Social we wish this great champion all the best ahead of retirement.
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