Yes, I picked Sergio Martinez to stop Miguel Cotto.
And yes, like most in the boxing industry, I was dead wrong.
I started tasting the crow as soon as the first-round came to a close and Sergio Martinez found himself doing the best Trevor Berbick impression I?ve witnessed in quite some time.
Kudos to Miguel Cotto. He deserves all the credit in the world ? a world, mind you, that is now quick to point to the failing knees and age of the former middleweight champion.
The echoing from bitter ?experts? and fan bases around the world is all too familiar to Miguel Cotto. It was barely two years ago when the Puerto Rican icon suffered back-to-back defeats at the hands of Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Austin Trout.
Words like ?finished? and ?shopworn? and ?long-in-the-tooth? were used as entertaining punch lines to discredit Miguel Cotto and his body of work over the last decade.
He was now a gatekeeper. He was now designated as a fighter not capable of beating anyone worth a damn, but one that still had enough memorable performances in his past to sell a few more tickets or carry a young up and coming pay-per-view star over the top.
Boxing is a sport that changes with the seasons. You?re only as good as your last fight, and sometimes it doesn?t matter what you do in the squared circle; someone is always going to tell you that it isn?t good enough. Miguel Cotto never gave up on himself. He kept a deaf ear to those who put his career in the rear-view mirror, and because of that he was able to command the underdog role and beat a long reigning champion who was considered to be too strong for a faded fighter.
With the victory many people have been salivating at the idea of a matchup with Mexican powerhouse Canelo Alvarez.
Freddie Roach, however, made it very clear that Floyd Mayweather would want nothing to do with the ?new? Miguel Cotto coming off the knockout victory over Sergio Martinez.
“All you got to do with him [Mayweather] is just get in shape and just beat him to it all night,” Roach said during an interview with BoxingScene.
“I think his legs are gone. He says he fights, he doesn’t move anymore because he wants to please the fans. I think that’s bullshit. I think he just can’t. I think he’s shot. I think he won’t fight any of my guys.”
Here come the echoes, yet again.
And now we have to ask ourselves: Should Miguel Cotto get a ton of credit for beating Sergio Martinez?
Freddie Roach, hired last year to rejuvenate the Puerto Rican superstar?s career, puts some legitimacy towards a question most would never think to ask with comments like those above.
Floyd Mayweather clearly outpointed Miguel Cotto during their fight two years ago. It was a close, competitive fight that even saw ?Money? bleed from his nose, but at the end of the day there was no denying the fact that Cotto was decisively beaten.
I understand why Roach is making this play. He?s now training Cotto and like Martinez, Roach has his health and his age to worry about. He is looking to cash out and Cotto might be his best chance considering there?s a better chance of hell freezing over before Pacquaio and Mayweather ever step foot in the ring together.
At the end of the day, however, there aren?t many people outside the island of Puerto Rico that realistically believe Miguel Cotto would do any better the second time around.
Freddie Roach is a hell of a trainer. The guy has forgotten more about the sweet science than I will ever know. But is the public really expected to believe that now, at 34 years old, Miguel Cotto is going to transform his fighting style enough to beat the best fighter in the sport?
All too often trainers get all the blame when a fighter loses and too much credit when a fighter wins.
The ironic thing about a potential rematch between Mayweather and Cotto comes from Roach?s words themselves. He is calling Mayweather a shot fighter. He points out to his legs and his age and sees the opportunity to not only make a lot of money, but also have his name forever linked to the first defeat at Mayweather?s professional career.
If he believes Cotto is good enough to beat Mayweather now because he?s, in a sense, damaged, is it really too far out of left field for folks around the sport to take a second look at the beating his fighter just put on Sergio Martinez ? a fighter whose knees are shot and who is nearly 40 years old?
Questions will always remain. That is a certainty, just like the truth that the sport of boxing is fast approaching a change of guard. Fighters like Pacquiao, Martinez, Cotto and Mayweather ? and hey, maybe even Bernard Hopkins ? will begin the winding down process, leaving an opportunity for the sports younger fighters to step up and assume their positions towards the throne.
This process cannot happen if we are constantly asking for recycled fights. Do we really need to see Cotto-Mayweather again? Are you really excited to see Pacquiao and Marquez fight for the 100th time?
The sport is not dying. That?s a bunch of hogwash. But it does tend to follow the same patterns over time; patterns that continue to shoot itself in the foot.
Change isn?t going to happen overnight, but that?s not to say it wouldn?t be refreshing.
We will see where the future takes us. Let?s just hope it isn?t down the same path we?ve gone before.
