Cotto-Gomez: Is Alfonso The Best Option For Miguel?

By Chris Thomas: With this recent news story of World Boxing Association welterweight champion Miguel Cotto (31-0, 25 KOs) opting to defend his title against Alfonso Gomez (18-3-2, 8 KOs), a fighter from the television series “The Contender,” on April 12th at Boardwalk Hall, in Atlantic City, New Jersey, I wonder if Cotto pursued every avenue to find a better opponent than Gomez? For a fighter as good and as popular as Cotto, you would think that he’d want to take on a quality opponent, at least someone ranked in the top 15, if not the top 5.

However, Gomez, 27, appears little more than an opponent for which Cotto can look good against for a change. Gomez has done little of note in his career, mostly known for stopping a shot Arturo Gatti in the 7th round in July 2007, leading to Gatti retiring from boxing immediately after the fight. Aside from that, Gomez has lost to and a fought a draw with Jesse Feliciano, who recently gave Kermit Cintron problems. Along the way, Gomez also split fights with Peter Manfredo Jr., another fighter from “The Contender,” who not too long ago was blasted out in three rounds by Joe Calzaghe in April 2007.

Based on his selection of Gomez, I’m wondering if this is a knee-jerk reaction made by Cotto due to his rather disappointing showings in his last three bouts, against Oktay Urkal, ab Judah and most recently against Shane Mosley. In each case, Cotto has looked hardly like a champion as he’s had to struggle to achieve a victory. Urkal, a fighter in the last stages of his career, gave Cotto fits, stinging him with jabs and controlling much of the fight after Cotto tired out at midpoint in the fight. In his fight against Judah, Cotto was stunned a couple of times early on, and the fight only turned around after a couple of low blows seemed to take the fight out of Judah.

Still, Cotto didn’t look remotely like a champion, in my view. Then, in his last fight, against the old 36 year-old ring veteran Shane Mosely, Cotto was fought essentially to a stand still, and barely escaped with a win. I had the fight a draw, as Mosely took over the fight in the last three rounds of the fight after winning several of the first six rounds.

Of course, it came to no surprise that Cotto, the champion, would get the nod, but you can’t erase the fact that it was a less than impressive performance made by him. Going by all this, perhaps Gomez was the fight opponent for Cotto after all. At least by choosing Gomez, who I think would be better of facing B-level fighters like Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., Cotto is almost guaranteed to get any easy win for a change.