NEW YORK - Miguel Cotto became the first Puerto Rican fighter to claim a major boxing title in four weight classes Saturday night when he captured the WBC middleweight belt from Sergio Martinez before a crowd of 21,090 at Madison Square Garden.
The fight officially came to an end six seconds into the 10th round as Martinez's corner waved the bout off. After nine rounds Martinez was far behind in the fight, arguably having lost every round to that point and needing a knockout to retain his title.
But he was showing no sign of turning things around. From the opening round, Cotto was in control of the fight. He knocked Martinez down four times in the bout, three times in the first round en route to a dominating performance.
"I never went wild after I knocked him down three times," Cotto said. "This was a 12-round fight, not a one-round fight. It's the happiest day of my life. My maturity as a professional fighter showed in the ring today. I told myself not to go wild.
"He keeps his right hand down, which makes it easy for me to land a left hook. My left hook is the punch that beat him tonight. I was boxing on angles and controlling him with my jab while backing him up. This is everything we did at Wild Card."
Cotto hurt Martinez a little more than a minute into the fight with a left hook to the head, which dropped the champ. He also landed devastating left hooks to the body that send Martinez to the canvas twice more.
In rounds two and three, Martinez began to clear his head and started throwing jabs and his footwork improved. But the injured right knee that kept Martinez out of action for more than a year was unstable.
Cotto continued to apply pressure, while staying away from the ropes - following the instructions of his trainer Freddie Roach. Before the bout, Roach predicted that Cotto would win by using superior ring generalship.
The win improved Cotto's record to 39-4 with 32 knockouts. He also increased his mark to 8-1 at Madison Square Garden. Martinez falls to 51-3-2.
Andy Lee KO John Jackson: Lee was beaten up for most of four rounds to open up the card before putting Jackson to sleep with a counter right hook. SWN had Jackson ahead 39-36 before Lee landed the finishing shot.
Javier Maciel def. Jorge Melendez: Melendez was the larger fighter, and was successful when stalking Maciel. Unfortunately for "The Destroyer" Maciel showed more heart and grit despite a size and power disadvantage to take a majority decision. Ringside judges: 96-92 (Maciel), 94-94, 97-91 (Maciel). SWN scored it 95-93 in favor of Maciel.
Marvin Sonsona def. Wilfredo Vazquez Jr.-Sonsona outpointed the Vazquez Jr. on two of the three judges' scorecards in a chippy affair that involved head-butts, and interesting scoring. All three judges had the close fight 96-92, except one of them scored it for Vazquez Jr. Sonsona walks away with a win though, his fifth consecutive victory since losing to Vazquez in 2010. SWN.com scored it 96-92 in favor of Vazquez Jr.
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