by William Mackay: Former welterweight champion Miguel Cotto (33-1, 27 KOs) recaptured a title on Saturday night in defeating Michael Jennings (34-2, 16 KOs) by a 5th round TKO to capture the vacant WBO welterweight title at New York’s Madison Square Garden. Jennings, fighting for his first time out of the UK, was much weaker than Cotto and did little other than jab and move for much of the fight. His jabs had little effect on Cotto, who took them and kept on applying pressure.
There wasn’t much good to say about Jennings’ performance other than he showed a good heart by taking his knockdowns like a man and getting up all three times that he was dropped by Cotto in the fight. Jennings was down twice in the 4th from body shots and once again in the 5th from a head shot. The fight was stopped after Jennings got up off the canvas.
Cotto later said that he’s interested in fighting the winner of Manny Pacquiao vs. Ricky Hatton, although he could also be facing former welterweight champion Kermit Cintron and IBF welterweight champion Joshua Clottey.
The fight started off with Jennings moving and jabbing, circling the ring and trying to keep the shorter, stronger Cotto from landing his big power shots. The jabs weren’t having much of an effect on Cotto, however, as he kept coming forward trying to cut off the ring. Jennings was hit with a hard body shot near the end of the round, but aside from that, there were few hard blows from either fighter in the round.
Cotto landed some nice body shots in the 2nd making the most of the few times that he was able to catch up to Jennings. It wasn’t much but it was more than enough to win the round as Jennings was still putting all his energies into jabbing. Cotto began to pick up steam in the 3rd, putting his offense into a higher gear for the first time in the fight.
Before that, Cotto had been fighting cautiously, maybe a lasting effect from his 11th round TKO loss to Antonio Margarito in July. Cotto landed a shot to Jennings’ snout, making it bleed. Jennings still fought effectively, throwing a lot of jabs for the remainder of the round and staying composed despite getting hit with some big shots every now and then.
Jennings let himself get too close to Cotto in the 4th, and was hit with a hard right hand that snapped Jennings’ head back. Cotto then closed the distance and dropped him with a left hook to the body. Jennings immediately got up off the canvas, eager to continue fighting. Cotto went after him with more body shots and knocked him down for a second time in the round with a left to the body.
Jennings wasn’t backing down in the 5th, attacking Cotto with nice jabs even though he was still looking slightly shaken from the previous round. Cotto now looking like his former self pre-Margarito, strode right through Jennings’ jabs and knocked him down with a right hand while he was up against the ropes. Jennings got up and was ready to continue when the referee stopped the fight.
With the win, Cotto is in a good position for a big money fight in the future against the winner of Hatton-Pacquiao. Whether Hatton or Pacquiao would want to fight a fighter as powerful as Cotto is another matter. Cotto would have the size and power advantage against both Hatton and Pacquiao and would be a lot of trouble for them potentially.
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