On paper, this fight wasn’t even suppose to last that long due to the 10-1 odds that favored Miguel Cotto in addition to the hype that surrounded the fight. However, those intangibles were insignificant due to the fact that Ricardo ?The Matador? Mayorga put on a display of an emotional and adrenalin filled offence with wild, chopping and sloppy punches that excited the fans for the duration of the fight. On the other hand, Miguel Cotto knit picked his points and was cold and calculated with each jab and punch that he landed on Mayorga.
On three different occasions, Mayorga baited Cotto and played possum as he backed himself against the ropes and called Cotto to follow him in to brawl. It was several moments of comical relief that delighted the fans in laughter during an intense battle. A boxer with nothing to lose is a dangerous one as “The Matador” demonstrated that he will do everything and anything to win this fight since his career was on the line.
Even though Mayorga has not fought close to two years, this was his best performance in a long time as he surprised many, his ring rust was absent. In fact, he showed improvement as a pressure fighter. However, Mayorga’s lack of footwork combined with his wild punching handicapped his offence in this fight while Cotto demonstrated his ring generalship over Mayorga for all 12 rounds. For the sake of throwing punches, Mayorga wasted many missed ones, his best moment was in the 7th round where he was able to land consecutive combos that reeled Cotto back in a hurry.
With two big career losses to Antonio Margario and Manny Pacquiao, Cotto’s conquest of re-emergence to his old winning ways is still a work in progress with infamous trainer Emmanuel Stewart. To some boxing experts, that day may never come. Even the critical “Iron” Mike Tyson uncannily stated during an interview in between rounds that ?both Cotto and Mayorga are past their prime tying to earn a paycheck and not trying to get hurt?.
The latest version of Miguel Cotto lacked the killer instinct and aggressiveness that made him the fierce and undefeated boxer that closed out his fights. He threw mostly one punch at a time accurately instead of the incorporated traps that he used that followed up with multiple head and body combos from the Cotto of yesteryear. Perhaps trainer Emmanuel Stewart’s objective with Cotto incorporates less brawl and more technical boxing. Stewart’s time with this fighter maybe running out if Cotto cannot pull the trigger on the volume power punching like he once did.
Cotto’s mission was accomplished early in the twelfth round; he landed a body shot followed by a bang on left hook to the head that sent Mayorga to the canvass. Although his signature punch could have come a lot earlier against someone who hasn’t fought in a while. During the last exchange of the fight, Mayorga seriously hurt his hand, a collision of hands could have occurred or he landed on that hand the wrong way when he was floored by Cotto’s left hook to the head. Mayorga could no longer continue due to the pain. Cotto retains his WBA Super light middleweight title on his first defense.
The judges scored the fight 107-107,107-102 and 107-102 and awarded the TKO to Miguel Cotto, who is now 36-2-0,29KO with a respectable 76% KO. Mayorga falls to 29-7-1 and announced his retirement and intention to get a job during the post fight interview.
It appears that Miguel Cotto will have an opportunity to reconcile his first loss to Antonio Margarito. Since Cotto and Margarito are both with Top Rank, making the rematch will be easy and very lucrative for Bob Arum. An upcoming rematch will be a true test for Miguel Cotto and may define his future in boxing.
