Puerto Rico’s 4-weight world champion, the decorated Miguel Cotto brings the curtain down on what is certain to be a future hall-of-fame career, this weekend.
Cotto will defend his WBO world jr-middleweight title against Sadam Ali this weekend in his farewell bout to the sport on December 2nd; at the Mecca of boxing in Madison Square Garden.
Golden Boy Promotions attempted to build a high-profile fight for Cotto’s last fight against Mikey Garcia and Errol Spence Jr.
However, both of those combatants passed on the opportunity because it would have meant surrendering promotional control to Oscar De La Hoya’s organisation.
So Cotto had to settle for a far smaller matchup against Sadam Ali. Ali has already made an attempt at the world welterweight title and was stopped by Jessie Vargas.
Many feel he will be overmatched by Cotto, who has scored knockouts while campaigning as a middleweight.
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However, Miguel was quick to add that no matter what you do, being in the public eye will always lead to criticism.
“The easiest thing in the world is to criticize, criticize and criticize.”
“I feel that I’ve had an excellent career in which I have achieved the main thing, which is to offer a future to my family.”
Cotto says his focus in his career was to be a breadwinner for his family and not to pander to the desires of those from the outside.
“I never stopped to think about what others think or what others say or expect someone to feel satisfied.
“My sole purpose throughout my career as a boxer has been to try to provide the best for my family,” Cotto said.
Cotto also touched on the pivotal role of his family in his life, sharing he is hanging up his gloves at 37 in an effort to become closer to them.
“I do not feel anything special [about this fight in particular], it’s been too many years in boxing.”
“I started when I was almost a kid, I went through amateur boxing, I became a man, I had my first son being a boxer and it’s time to be with them.”
“I missed great events in their lives due to boxing and the time has come to never miss another of those moments,” Cotto added.
“Everything has been the same, the normal things, the fact that it is the last fight has not affected the preparation, the motivation.
“Everything happens when it must happen, and this is the moment of my retirement.”
“I am in excellent shape, the preparation has been very good, I can not complain and I only hope that the day will come.”
Cotto concluded, “[Ali] is a great fighter, a tremendous fighter, but in my case, as always, I will offer the best of myself and I’ll get to December 2 ready to face him.”
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