- Joined
- Nov 3, 2017
- Messages
- 1,158
- Reaction score
- 0
I know, I know, y'all gone call me a negative nancy for going out of my way to make a post about a fighter I don't like...and usually I wouldn't even bother if I'm not a fan of a fighter. But in cotto's case, I'll make an exception.
Now, on the positive side, I do commend cotto for taking on most of the best fighters of his era. You can't say he actively ducked anybody. He gave canelo a shot at the mw title when he could have easily fought some less threatening comp. He was willing to move up and fight maravilla at a time when maravilla was considered a top 10 pfp guy (nobody knew how bad maravilla's physical problems were). He graciously gave cheating margarito a rematch...and on a personal note, cotto has really made the effort to master english. when he first came on the scene he couldn't speak a word of english....now he speaks it perfectly and even with some flair.
on the negative side, i always considered cotto something of a cheat...when he was first introduced to boxing, he was a natural jmw fighting at jww. he was "the new tito"...so he got overhyped alot. I know you can't blame the fighter for that, but i always found him to be very overrated. Demarcus corley came thisclose to stopping him (i'll never forget how on fight night, corley was 140 and cotto was 154!..fkin ridiculous!)...torres beat cotto all over the ring, dropped him and exposed him for the weak-chinned, defensively porous fighter he is. Even malignaggi had cotto on queer street late in their fight.
But the thing that really bugged me was the judah fight....from the first rd, everytime zab would stagger cott with zab's lightning quick combos, cotto would retaliate with some hard low blows, dropping zab to the deck and stopping all his momentum...and the thing is, cotto KNEW zab wouldn't retaliate because zab was already in trouble with the officials for strangling jay nady and they just looking for a reason to stick it to him. IMO, cotto deserved to be DQ'd for the zab fight...
Cotto also got a big gift against ssm...i had shane winning by AT LEAST 7-5, more like 8-4. but at the time, cotto was the young, upcoming star and ssm was on the comeback trail after losses to forrest and winky tarnished his luster...clearly the decision for cotto proved the promoters were throwing thier support behind the man they considered the better long term investment.
Another bad decision was clottey, another fighter i never cared for...but i had clottey winning a clear decision.
IMO, cotto should have at least 8 losses on his record. zab, clottey, ssm, pac, floyd, margarito, canelo and trout...and if all his fights had been called fairly, he would have a few more losses. This is because he would have had to re-establish himself after eah setback by fighting guys like spinks, forrest, winky, hatton, oscar, collazzo, and some of the lower echelon guys who were tough but never got the big spotlight.
As it turned out, being a talented p.r. fighter was really cotto's biggest attribute. nothing wrong with being P.R., but let's face it, there's politics in boxing... If he had been born in brazil or tennessee he would only be remembered as a solid contender and defnitely NOT the future hof'er folks are making him out to be.
Now, on the positive side, I do commend cotto for taking on most of the best fighters of his era. You can't say he actively ducked anybody. He gave canelo a shot at the mw title when he could have easily fought some less threatening comp. He was willing to move up and fight maravilla at a time when maravilla was considered a top 10 pfp guy (nobody knew how bad maravilla's physical problems were). He graciously gave cheating margarito a rematch...and on a personal note, cotto has really made the effort to master english. when he first came on the scene he couldn't speak a word of english....now he speaks it perfectly and even with some flair.
on the negative side, i always considered cotto something of a cheat...when he was first introduced to boxing, he was a natural jmw fighting at jww. he was "the new tito"...so he got overhyped alot. I know you can't blame the fighter for that, but i always found him to be very overrated. Demarcus corley came thisclose to stopping him (i'll never forget how on fight night, corley was 140 and cotto was 154!..fkin ridiculous!)...torres beat cotto all over the ring, dropped him and exposed him for the weak-chinned, defensively porous fighter he is. Even malignaggi had cotto on queer street late in their fight.
But the thing that really bugged me was the judah fight....from the first rd, everytime zab would stagger cott with zab's lightning quick combos, cotto would retaliate with some hard low blows, dropping zab to the deck and stopping all his momentum...and the thing is, cotto KNEW zab wouldn't retaliate because zab was already in trouble with the officials for strangling jay nady and they just looking for a reason to stick it to him. IMO, cotto deserved to be DQ'd for the zab fight...
Cotto also got a big gift against ssm...i had shane winning by AT LEAST 7-5, more like 8-4. but at the time, cotto was the young, upcoming star and ssm was on the comeback trail after losses to forrest and winky tarnished his luster...clearly the decision for cotto proved the promoters were throwing thier support behind the man they considered the better long term investment.
Another bad decision was clottey, another fighter i never cared for...but i had clottey winning a clear decision.
IMO, cotto should have at least 8 losses on his record. zab, clottey, ssm, pac, floyd, margarito, canelo and trout...and if all his fights had been called fairly, he would have a few more losses. This is because he would have had to re-establish himself after eah setback by fighting guys like spinks, forrest, winky, hatton, oscar, collazzo, and some of the lower echelon guys who were tough but never got the big spotlight.
As it turned out, being a talented p.r. fighter was really cotto's biggest attribute. nothing wrong with being P.R., but let's face it, there's politics in boxing... If he had been born in brazil or tennessee he would only be remembered as a solid contender and defnitely NOT the future hof'er folks are making him out to be.
Last edited: