Undefeated World Boxing Association welterweight champion Miguel Cotto (31-0, 25 KOs) will be making his fourth title defense when he takes on Alfonso Gomez (18-3-2, 8 KOs) on April 12th at the Boardwalk Hall, in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Gomez, a former star from the reality television series The Contender, is mostly known as being the fighter that retired a badly shop worn Arturo Gatti, stopping him in the 7th round on July 14th, 2007. Other than that, Gomez has little to get excited about. He’s essentially a good 2nd tier fighter, one that will put on a good show against lesser B-level fighters, but will be hopelessly outclassed against top notch opposition such as Cotto.

Late last year, Gomez has been mentioned as a possible opponent for for prospect Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. However, for whatever reason, Gomez’s name was withdrawn as a prospective opponent for Chavez, probably because he was far too dangerous for him. It’s a good thing, for Gomez would have destroyed the young Chavez, and would have likely knocked him out in a short period of time. Gomez may be a B fighter, but he’s a good one, and he’d pick apart a slow plodder like the young Chavez. Gomez has good offensive skills to go a long with his above average ring smarts. He’s especially good at working the body, throwing powerful hooks with either hand and crowding his opponent. Unfortunately, that’s pretty much the same style that Cotto, an even more powerful puncher, uses.

Obviously, Gomez is going to have to come up with another plan if he wants to be successful against Cotto, for he won’t be able to stand in front of him and try to trade shot for shot, as he doesn’t have the chin to take that kind of punishment. So far, Gomez has shown only sporadic glimpses of being able to box from the outside, which is what he’s going to have to do if he wants to survive against Cotto.

Frankly, I don’t it happening. He’s spent his entire career punching it out on the inside against lesser fighters, and hasn’t had to learn how to use his feet to create distance from his opponents. He’s not going to be able to change his style in time for his bout with Cotto, and I don’t think he”ll even consider trying to. Gomez will probably go directly at Cotto, slugging it out with him on the inside, and hope for the best.

For his part, Cotto is coming off a disappointing narrow unanimous decision over a 36 year-old Shane Mosley on December 2007. Though Cotto looked fairly decent in the first half of the fight, he seemed to lose energy in the 2nd half of the fight, as Mosley took the fight to him and had him on the run in the last couple of rounds. At this stage, I think Cotto is a better fighter than Mosley, and would beat him again if they were to have a rematch, but I wouldn’t like his chances if he were to fight Antonio Margarito or World Boxing Organization welterweight champion Paul Williams. I see both Margarito and Williams as being too large for Cotto, and would beat him by decision. It would be asking too much of Cotto, a former light welterweight in 2006, to beat big legitimate welterweights like them. At 5’7,” Cotto is making the most of his limited height, but he’d be simply too small against either Margarito and Williams.

Cotto looked good in winning the WBA welterweight title in December 2007, when he stopped Carlos Quintana in the 5th round. However, Cotto looked much less impressive against Oktay Urkal, a German-based fighter, who gave Cotto fits in the second of of their bout, before the fight was stopped in the 11th round by Urkal’s manager, a move made to protest Urkal being called for a foul. Cotto faded badly in that fight, and was getting jabbed silly by Urkal, who stayed on the outside, using his height to jab away at the much shorter Cotto. Obviously, this fight would be used as a blue print of Williams and Margarito to use, should Cotto ever decide on fighting one of them.

In Cotto’s next bout, against Zab Judah in June 2007, Cotto had problems with Judah’s power and speed early on, even getting stunned a couple of times by big left hands from Judah. However, Cotto seemed to turn the fight around after landing two big low blows, both of which appeared to take the fight out of Judah. From then on, the fight was much more manageable for Cotto, until finally stopping Judah in the 11th round. It wasn’t as easy fight, though, as Cotto took a lot of punishment in the first half of the fight, but he ended up getting the win.