The boxing world wondered after Miguel Cotto destroyed an overmatched Delvin Rodriguez in October 2013 whether the Cotto they saw that night, who resembled the body punching terror of old, was here to stay. On June 7, against WBC middleweight champion Sergio Martinez, they got their answer--a resounding yes.
Cotto has touted the difference working with trainer Freddie Roach has made for his career, and it showed against Martinez. Despite facing a natural middleweight and fighting at that high a weight for the first time in his career, Cotto made Maravilla feel his power early by knocking him down three times in Round 1.
Rumors abounded that Martinez re-injured his knee early in the bout, which created a lack of mobility and rendered him unable to come back from the disastrous first round, but in the post fight press conference both Martinez's promoter Lou DiBella and trainer Pablo Sarmiento harped on making "no excuses."
A visibly disappointed Sarmiento said at the press conference, "There's nothing else to say. Sergio is okay. We just tip our hat to Cotto he's a great champion." Sarmiento added that neither Martinez's hand nor knee were the cause for his defeat. "Sergio never mentioned anything," Sarmiento said. "I know him very well. He never got back from that first round. I did what I had to do."
The impressive nature of Cotto's victory leads to myriad choices going forward that should whet the pallet of every boxing fan. Sports World News, which was at the event, scored all nine rounds for a dominant Cotto, including a 10-7 round 1.
Several post-fight questions directed at Todd duBoef, Bob Arum, Roach and Cotto dealt with what comes next for Cotto, but all declined to elaborate. The most telling answer came from duBoef, who said "I'll sit down with my team, and decide what we're going to do. What we like, what he likes we're going to do it unified. From 160 to 147 we'll evaluate them all and decide best choice is."
The obvious train of thought is a super fight with Mexican superstar Canelo Alvarez. With Arum and Oscar De La Hoya mending fences in order to cross promote, the opportunity for the biggest money-making fight not involving Floyd Mayweather Jr. is staring them in the face. Cotto's team hinted they're aiming for a December return, and provided Canelo gets past Erislandy Lara on July 12, he should be a go for his third fight of 2014.
Another option, which nobody affiliated with Cotto ruled out, is a fight at middleweight against Gennady "GGG" Golovkin, a knockout king set to take on Daniel Geale on July 26 at MSG.
Really nothing is off the table, because Cotto so thoroughly dominated every aspect of the fight against a larger, skilled foe. His power was obviously present. He danced like Fred Astaire around Martinez's confused punches, blocked the ones that came near him, and countered everything the champion had to offer. It's hard not to believe Cotto could give any fighter in the world a run for his money.
As for Martinez, at 39 years old it could be time for him to walk away from the sport. His protestations aside about "no excuses," his knee did appear to stiffen and rob him of some mobility. If that's the case, it marks the third time he's hurt his knee in the past three fights. Martinez wasn't present at the post fight conference, so Sarmiento addressed that question for him.
"We're not going to make a decision (on retirement) right now. He's an intelligent fighter so we'll take our time and make the right decision."
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