WBO welterweight champion Miguel Cotto has fought at Madison Square Garden on the night before the Puerto Rican Day Parade for four of the last five years.
It has become so much of a tradition that Cotto fans expect to see him as much as they expect to see a bevy of colorful floats rolling down Fifth Avenue as part of the festivities.
Cotto doesn’t plan on disappointing them this year as he will defend his title on Saturday against Joshua Clottey (35-2, 20 KOs), a tough welterweight champion from Ghana who now lives in the Bronx.
“I like fighting here around Puerto Rican Parade weekend,” Cotto said during a visit to the Daily News editorial offices in Manhattan yesterday. “I have a lot of fans here (in New York) and I have a lot of fans that come over from Puerto Rico. So there is always a lot of support for me at Madison Square Garden no matter who I fight.”
Cotto skipped the Garden tradition last year, instead fighting Antonio Margarito in Las Vegas on July 26. Cotto (33-1, 27 KOs) suffered his first loss when Margarito stopped him on an 11th-round TKO. There is some question as to whether Margarito fought that match with loaded gloves. Margarito had his license suspended by the California boxing commission when it was discovered shortly before his fight against Shane Mosely that his hand wraps contained an illegal substance.
Mosley’s trainer made the discovery and objected to their use. Subsequent tests on the wraps showed that they contained plaster of Paris.
Though Cotto took some severe punishment against Margarito, including a broken nose in the second round, Cotto said he doesn’t know if Margarito’s gloves were the reason. He did note that most of the damage was done to him after the sixth round, when the sweat conceivably could have mixed with plaster of Paris in Margarito’s hand wraps and formed a cast around his hands.
Cotto said no one from his camp visited Margarito’s dressing room before the fight to inspect Margarito’s hand wraps or gloves. He said because no one from Margarito’s camp came to his dressing room, his uncle and trainer, Evangelista Cotto, didn’t think it was necessary.
Cotto said they did visit the dressing room of Michael Jennings, whom he fought and defeated in his comeback fight at the Garden in February, to inspect his gloves. Lesson learned.
Evangelista Cotto will not be in Cotto’s corner for this fight. Cotto fired his uncle as his trainer back in March after the two had a disagreement over where Cotto would train. Cotto opted to train in Tampa, but Evangelista wanted him to train in Puerto Rico, where he was working with other boxers.
The fighter promoted Joe Santiago, a member of his training team for the last three years, to be his trainer. He said things went well at his training camp in Tampa without Evangelista and he doesn’t believe there will be a dropoff with Santiago in his corner.
“Joe has always helped Evangelista in camp,” Cotto said. “Joe has really helped to integrate every member of the team into the training. The communication is better and that is helping me, the athlete, prepare for the fight.”
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