By Jim Dower: British welterweight Michael Jennings (34-1, 16 KOs) finds himself facing some very tough odds in facing former WBA welterweight champion Miguel Cotto (32-1, 26 KOs) for the vacant WBO welterweight title on Saturday night at the Madison Square Garden, in New York, New York. Jennings, 31, will be facing one of the strongest and biggest punchers in the welterweight division in the 28-year-old Cotto.
What makes things more difficult for Jennings, is that he’s going to be facing Cotto without the same kind of power that Miguel possesses. That itself is a going to be a problem, because many of the opponents that Jennings has to fight for the full extent of the fights, are defeated rather quickly by other less experienced fighters than him. Based on that, Jennings has got to hope that Cotto isn’t the same fighter he was before suffering an 11th round TKO loss to Antonio Margarito in July.
If there are still lingering effects from the knockout for Cotto, then Jennings may have just enough power to get him out of there. That’s the unknown. When a fighter gets hurt similarly to the way that Cotto was against Margarito, a fight in which Cotto received a broken nose and two badly cut eyes, making it necessary to take a knee twice in the 11th round.
If there are not any lingering effects of the knockout, which may likely be the case, then Jennings is going to have serious problem on his hands. It’s doubtful that Jennings could move for a full 12 rounds while being chased around by Cotto. I would advise that Jennings at least try to stay on the move as much as possible, because the moment he stops to trade shots with Cotto, he’s open to getting knocked out.
Cotto is a much more savage puncher than Jennings, and used to having his way with his opponents. However, Cotto doesn’t move well for long periods of time and tends to fade when he’s forced to move often. He’d never moved as much as he did in his last fight with Antonio Margarito in July. Jennings may not be able to move well enough to stay standing by the 12th, so he’s going to have to try and win some respect from Cotto by periodically mixing things up with him.
That’s something I believe that Jennings can do, but he’s got to be careful not to get carried away with himself and too cocky, because he’ll get dropped, knocked out or cut if he stands in front of Cotto for long. Jennings has got to try and land as many head shots as possible and hope that one of them may dent Cotto’s possible weak chin enough to stop or knock him down.
I wouldn’t waste my time trying to go to the body if I were Jennings, because in order to throw his big shorts, Jennings would have to get in close with Cotto, and that’s probably not a wise move for him to do if he plans on winning.
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