Cotto-Martinez recap

For one night last night at Madison Square Garden we got to see vintage Miguel Cotto as he outclassed Sergio Martinez for his WBC middleweight championship.  The speed was there, the impeccable defense was there and most of all for the real boxing fans, the left hook was there.

In this generation Cotto has always been considered a great but not legendary fighter.  He has taken losses to both Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather which keeps him from being mentioned in their category.  His style has never been sexy but to a boxing purist it’s beautiful to watch Cotto break his opponent down with a series of thunderous left hooks to the body and head. 

Martinez was the favorite going into the fight due to the fact that Cotto had lost two straight title opportunities against Mayweather and Austin Trout.  He switched up trainers, bringing in Hall of Fame trainer Freddie Roach and the process of rebuilding Cotto began.  Roach noticed right away that Cotto had gone away from what made him stand out as a boxer: using the left hook as his primary weapon.  That left hook helped Cotto get a record of 38-4 with 31 knockouts.  It was on full display last night at MSG with 18,000 fans in attendance.

Cotto got off to a tremendous start, knocking down the much bigger Martinez three times in the opening round.  A flurry of left hooks to the head and body sent the Argentine down the first time and Cotto followed up with another quick knockdown a few seconds later off a hard left hook to the gut.  The third knockdown was more of a weakened Martinez than anything; he was off balance and seemed to be weak in his legs.  It must be said that this was Martinez first fight in 14 months in which he was recovering from various injuries including a torn right meniscus and a broken left hand. 

In the second round, Martinez almost got knocked down a fourth time but it was ruled a slip by the referee.  Throughout the evening, Martinez could muster very little offense; his punches were long and slow in comparison to Cotto.  The alleged reach advantage the taller Martinez had went out the window due to Cotto’s body attack.  With Cotto getting inside he was able to nullify the power of Martinez punches. 

Going into the second half of the half it was clear that Martinez was nowhere near the same fighter that compiled a 51-2-2 record.  His footwork was shaky, fundamentals were off and at times he looked dejected heading back to his corner.  Cotto had imposed his will upon Martinez.  By the end of the ninth round, the mood in Martinez corner had switched to optimistic to protection.  Martinez was being dominated and was starting to get cut by the sharper and effective punches Cotto was throwing. Martinez corner spared him another nine minutes of getting beat up and called the fight giving Cotto a TKO victory.

So what's next for Cotto?  He has lost to Mayweather and Pacquiao already and there’s no clamor for a rematch of either one although with such a dominant performance the buzz might generate something noteworthy. 

Was this an admiration due to an older rehabbing opponent or was this a return to the vintage Cotto?  As usual it’s probably a little of both, Martinez was not himself but Cotto went back to basics and chopped down the bigger man.  His ring generalship and positioning was phenomenal.  The punches were crisp and he didn’t panic to knock out Martinez when he had him hurt.  Freddie Roach said he saw certain things in Cotto most recent fights that made him want to teach him the fundamentals, based off this fight you can’t argue with the results.   If Cotto continues to fight at this level he might be able to eclipse the level he was at prior to losing those back to back fights.

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