Miguel Cotto: Back with a bang and ready, willing and able for some more sizzling super-fights!

cotto552Puerto Rican legend and future Hall of Famer Miguel Cotto put two successive points losses behind him last night in blitzing a usually sturdy Delvin Rodriguez, in the process setting himself up for further massive fights. Cotto, now working with the great Freddie Roach, looked like a beast last night: strong, fast, powerful and full of energy, Cotto absolutely ruined a good fighter.

Okay, some critics have commented how Rodriguez is and never has been on Cotto’s level and that Cotto’s win was expected. But that is doing both fighters a disservice. Cotto showed he still has the stuff to intimidate and overwhelm a fighter who has hung tough in a number of wars in the past and not too many experts were predicting as quick a victory as the one Cotto emerged with.

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Ashley Theophane reminisces about “The One” in Las Vegas

TheophaneCano_Hoganphotosby Ashley Theophane — The dust has started to settle after my appearance on the biggest boxing event the world has seen in a generation.

There was a record 22 million Mexicans tuned into ‘The One’ boxing event featuring Floyd Mayweather, Saul Alvarez, Danny Garcia, Lucas Matthysse, Ishe Smith, Carlos Molina, Pablo Cesar Cano and of course, yours truly. The American PPV audience was over 2 million viewers, and that’s not counting the people watching in movie theaters and on closed circuit in hotels across Las Vegas.

The significant worldwide audience in Europe, Africa, South America, Oceania and Asia is yet to be totaled.

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Cotto could move up to 160 for his next fight

cotto900One of the ideas that Top Rank Promotions has for Miguel Cotto (38-4, 31 KO’s) is for him to move up to 160 for his next fight and challenge WBC middleweight champion Sergio Martinez for his title. Top Rank’s Bob Arum would like for Cotto to take on Sergio and sees it as a fight that would make a lot of money if he can get Sergio to agree to the fight.

Cotto also has a slight chance of fighting former WBA/WBC junior middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. That might be the better fight because it would likely bring in much more money than a fight against Sergio, who is coming off of a poor performance against Martin Murray last April. Martinez is still recovering from hand and a knee injury from that fight.

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Cotto destroys Rodriguez

cotto765Miguel Cotto (38-4, 31 KO’s) unveiled his old left hook and used it to destroy Delvin Rodriguez (28-7-3, 16 KO’s) by an impressive 3rd round knockout on Saturday night in a fight televised by HBO at the Amway Center, in Orlando, Florida.

Cotto badly hurt Rodriguez with a huge left hooks to the head in the last seconds of the 2nd round that had him out on his feet against the ropes. Immediately at the start of the 3rd round, Cotto pounced on Rodriguez and chopped him down with a hard right to the body followed by a tremendous left hook to the head that sent him down.

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Quigg-Salinas fight to a draw, Joshua beats Leo

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In a controversial ending the WBA super bantamweight bout between champion Scott Quigg (26-0-2, 19 KO’s) and Yoandris Salina (20-0-2, 13 KO’s) was scored as a draw tonight at the O2 Arena in London, UK. It was difficult to see what the judges saw in Salina’s performance because Quigg looked like a clear winner by at least 4 rounds possibly more. Salinas didn’t throw nearly enough punches to make the fight even.

The judges scored the fight as follows: 114-114, 115-113 for Quigg, and 114-114.

Quigg really took the fight to Salinas after the first four rounds and punished him with head and body shots. Salinas did look good defensively, but he forgot about his offense for long stretches of the fight and it was difficult to give him a lot of rounds due to his lack of offensive output.

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Klitschko dominates Povetkin in dull fight

wlad6778IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (61-3, 51 KO’s) should consider himself lucky that he wasn’t disqualified tonight for the clinching and pushing he did en route to beating WBA heavyweight champion Alexander Povetkin (26-1, 18 KO’s) by a boring 12 round unanimous decision at the Olimpiyskiy, in Moscow, Russia. Wladimir held more than he usually does for his fights, which is hard to believe and he was shoving Povetkin to the canvas and getting away with it until the 11th round when referee Luis Pabon took 1 point away from Wladimir.

Wladimir put Povetkin down 4 times during the fight and seemingly had him ready to be stopped in the 7th after he knocked him down 3 times in the round, but unfortunately spent the remainder of the jabbing and clinching rather than looking to finish off a tired Povetkin. Wladimir’s first knockdown of Povetkin came in the 2nd when he hit him with a left hook to the head that sent him stumbling backwards to the canvas.

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Tyson Fury vs David Haye: February 8th is signed and sealed

fury5333Unbeaten heavyweight sensation and former British, Commonwealth and Irish heavyweight champion Tyson Fury has announced that his fight with former undisputed cruiserweight and former WBA world heavyweight champion David Haye is “signed and sealed” for February 8th.

“This is a message to all my fans and haters, for all those wanting to see me knock out David Haye on behalf of the nation and all those who want to see me put out of my misery,” Tyson said.

“The fight for February 8th is completely signed and sealed from both of us.

“I’m pleased that the fight is on again for February 8th – it’s going to be bigger this time, better, more people watching and I’m going to take pleasure in smashing his face in a bit more.

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Klitschko vs. Povetkin vs. Apathy

wladimir2How many people who don’t frequent boxing websites are aware that the Heavyweight Championship of the World will be contested mid-day Saturday? The prize once regarded as the greatest in all of sport will be on the line when Wladimir Klitschko faces Alexander Povetkin in Moscow, Russia. Beyond the traditional significance attached to such an event, another element adds even greater intrigue to the story: history. As Klitschko adds days and numbers to his impressive time as champion he more securely solidifies his place among the sport’s greats.

But, again, who will notice?

If HBO’s Saturday fight schedule were a theatrical production, this heavyweight fight would be nothing but the supporting cast member—resting in the shadow of aging star, Miguel Cotto.

But is it really the case that no one cares; or is it simply that Americans don’t care? Wladimir and his brother Vitali have no problem selling out arenas in Europe. They are loved in their native home of Ukraine and their adopted home of Germany.

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Bradley reveals how to beat Marquez

bradley900WBO welterweight champion Tim Bradley (30-0, 12 KO’s) has it all figured out how he can go about beating Mexican warrior Juan Manuel Marquez (55-6-1, 40 KO’s) in their fight on October 12th.

To Bradley, Marquez has problem with fast fighters and he thinks he can give the 40-year-old problems by using his hand and foot speed to fight at too high of a pace.

Bradley thinks he can work him hard to take advantage of his tendency to fight in a methodical manner.

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Roach: Cotto’s career might be over with another loss

roach5Trainer Freddie Roach believes that his fighter Miguel Cotto (37-4, 30 KO’s) could be finished if he loses to junior middleweight contender Delvin Rodriguez (28-6-3, 16 KO’s) this Saturday night at the Amway Center, in Orlando, Florida, USA.

Roach realizes that Cotto is in a bad way given that he’s coming off of back to back losses, and that’s why he wants to see him go back to the fighter that he was in his prime when he was an aggressive guy that liked to destroy his opponents with his powerful body and head shots.

Roach said to HBO “Let’s face it; we’re coming off of a couple of losses. Another loss would be devastating for his career. Probably it might be over. I want the old Miguel Cotto. I want the guy that’s breaking them down and knocking them out. And he said ‘I will give you that.’”

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