by: Edgar Macabasa – The beating that Cotto endured at the hands of Antonio Margarito made many people believe that Cotto was already damaged goods in boxing. The fact that he KO’ed Michael Jennings in five rounds during his next fight did little to change that perception since Jennings was nowhere near the class of the elite fighters in the welterweight division. This view also gained more momentum when Cotto struggled and nearly lost a split decision to Joshua Clottey in a fight where many people saw Clottey as the winner and in which the difference between winning and losing may have been the knockdown Cotto scored in the first round of the fight..
However, what many people fail to take into consideration was that nobody has ever looked good in a fight against Clottey. Clottey is a big, massive welterweight, with a tight defense, above-average handspeed and power and he always spells trouble for anybody. Also, Cotto was not only contending with Clottey that night. He was also fighting with a very bad cut over his left eye due to an accidental headbutt from the third round onwards. He did show a bit of tentativeness in that fight, but who wouldn’t be when further damage to that cut could lead to the fight being stopped? Who wouldn’t hesitate when he could not see the punches coming from Clottey’s right? What many failed to see is that never for once in the fight was it evident that Cotto wanted to quit or lost the will to win. His big heart willed him to gut it out during the championship rounds and that in my opinion was what won him the fight.
In the fight with Pacquiao, Cotto absorbed more punishment than he received during the Margarito fight. However, in the early moments of Pacquiao-Cotto, we did not see any physical evidence that Cotto was damaged by the Margarito and Clottey fights. In fact, many are of the opinion that for the first four or five rounds of that fight, we have seen the fastest Cotto ever, and Cotto’s performance in those rounds told me a lot why Mayweather has never expressed any interest in fighting Cotto at welterweight: Cotto’s handspeed is underrated and his left hook would probably break Mayweather’s ribs. Cotto was in the best condition of his life in that fight (credit goes to Phil Landman). He was still bouncing lightly on his feet up to the final round inspite of all the punishment he was taking. That Cotto started to backpedal away from Pacquiao from the eight round onwards is just the natural thing for a fighter to do given that he realizes he isn’t hurting Pacquiao and he is in danger of being knocked out. Being very brave is one thing and being very stupid is another, which Cotto certainly is not.
So let’s stop making all these excuses for Miguel Cotto. Cotto was not weight drained at 145, he looked trim and ripped during the weigh-in. His skin tone was not at all that of a weight-drained fighter nor did he look drawn like one. By his own admission, he did nothing for a couple of days before the Clottey fight and he weighed in at 146 for that fight. As Cotto rightfully said, when he fought Pacquiao, he fought the best fighter he ever fought.
It is high time people acknowledge that Pacquiao is simply in a class of his own right now and that was why he was able to do things to Miguel Cotto that no one ever has. Or ever will.