With the celebrated Hall of Fame trainer Freddie Roach in his corner assisted by promising young Filipino assistant Marvin Somodio, Miguel Cotto mauled Argentina?s Sergio ?Maravilla? Martinez to score a 10th round stoppage before a raucous Puerto Rican crowd at New York?s famed Madison Square Garden.
It was apparent from the opening round in which Cotto dropped Martinez three times that the southpaw champion was hampered by the operation on both his knees and couldn?t move well or get any leverage for his punches.
Cotto became the first Puerto Rican fighter to win world titles in four different weight divisions and improved to 39-4 with 32 knockouts while a badly battered Martinez dropped to 51-3-2 with 28 knockouts.
One of Cotto?s losses was a 12th round TKO in a catch-weight, welterweight title fight at the hands of ?Fighter of the Decade? Manny Pacquiao in November 2009 in a fight which Pacquiao dominated and which was the last stoppage scored by Pacquiao.
Cotto, a former champion at junior welterweight, welterweight and super welterweight sent Martinez to the canvas early in round one after hurting him with a solid left followed by a flurry of punches and effectively sealed the win when he sent Martinez down one more time in a dominating first round which immediately gave Cotto a four -point margin at 10-6.
Cotto continued to pursue Martinez and had him reeling from his vicious combinations which prompted Roach to tell Cotto at the end of round eight ?you are in command, stay in command.?
As though following his trainer?s command Cotto nailed Martinez with a tremendous jab that the referee called a knockdown in round nine which signaled the beginning of the end.
Martinez? cause was hopeless and his trainer knew it and decided to stop the fight barely six seconds into the 10th round.
At the time of the stoppage all three judges had Cotto way ahead at 90-77.
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