Cotto vs. Clottey: Is Miguel Ready for a Tough Fight Like This?
May 22nd, 2009
By Manuel Perez: I got a lot of respect for WBO welterweight champion Miguel Cotto (33-1, 27 KOs) for taking on a tough opponent like Joshua Clottey (35-2, 20 KOs) as his next opponent on June 13th at New York’s Madison Square Garden. With the mostly soft competition that’s currently ranked below him in the World Boxing Organization, Cotto couldn’t be blamed if he wanted to take things easy and just defend his title against the mostly mediocre competition that is currently ranked in the top #15 in the division.
On the surface, Cotto did well for most of the fight, but at the end of the 10th Cotto was hurt by an uppercut thrown by Margarito. In the 11th, Margarito tore Cotto’s face up around his eyes, bloodying his nose badly and dropping Cotto twice in the round.
To his credit, Cotto got to his feet after taking a knee for the 2nd time in the round and was prepared to fight on despite his facing being covered with blood and looking like a mask. Cotto’s corner stepped in at that point and mercifully threw in the towel to prevent him from taking any more of a beating from Margarito.
As bad as the knockout was, no one would blame Cotto if he took the entire year off to recover from the severe beating. Instead, Cotto was matched up with Britain’s Michael Jennings, a soft touch brought in to Miguel and easy win, and Cotto wasted little time in knocking him out in the 5th round in an easy win in February 2009.
Cotto, 28, looked like the same fighter he was pre-Margarito. That’s all well and good, but with Jennings being such a poor opponent for Cotto, it did pretty much next to nothing to prove whether Cotto was still feeling the after effects of his beating from Margarito. Cotto took an awful lot of hard shots to the head in the Margarito fight, and it’s probably not the best of ideas to have Cotto matched so tough with little time between the bad knockout.
If it was a quick knockout loss then maybe it might not be such a big deal for Cotto. However, Cotto took a lot of punishment in the Margarito fight over a two round period of time late in the fight and I would have liked to have seen Cotto matched up a little easier than against a fighter like Clotty.
I could see Cotto being matched up with someone like Jesus Soto Karass or Kell Brook, but not against a tough fighter like Clottey, who gave Margarito a lot of problems in their fight in 2006 before injuring his hand. Clottey is fast, throws a lot of punches and has an excellent left hook and uppercut in his punch arsenal. These are the kinds of weapons that Cotto has problems with, especially the uppercut.
Cotto was hurt often in the last two rounds by Margarito’s uppercuts. Cotto likes to crowd his opponents at times and leaves himself open for the punch by leaning forward just enough to create space for that type of punch.
Clearly, Clottey has seen tapes of the Margarito fight and will be planning on using that (which he uses anyway as a regular part of his offense) punch to cause Cotto problems. I have bad feeling about this fight and I think Cotto is making a mistake in facing a tough fighter so soon.
Tags: 23 Responses to “Cotto vs. Clottey: Is Miguel Ready for a Tough Fight Like This?”
Leave a Reply
please use above banner to link back to us!
well definetly the only loss cotto had was to margarito and 99% he had plaster on his gloves and even with that cotto was still standing hes a great warrior and you all will see june 13th what puertorricans are made of, then the 14th i will like to see your comments on how great cotto fought you stupid anticottos everyone wants to see him fall becuase they know he can be the best pound for pound fighter is clotteys turn then bring berto,mosley,mayweather,pacquiao anybody cotto is ready to take the division by storm
I mean Cotto did like he had been put through a mangler yes, after 30 minutes and the wraps in Margo’s gloves getting harder and harder. The defeat should not be mentioned again.
I am a big fan of Cotto due to his “no fear” attitide and he seeks the toughest fights. One thing that does concern me is that sometimes he has a tendency to switch off in the middle rounds, against Margacheeto he was a ring general for six rounds and then seemed to lose his way a little. I think he does this a bit too often, if he can be sharp for 12 rounds I think he will win, but Clottey is a tough SOB and brings his own power and skills to the table. I will go for a UD, but it will be a tough fight. Cotto’s pure boxing skills are underated and he also has power, particularly when he goes to the body. I think saying Margo took his punches is true, but the guy does have a granite chin. It took quite a few bombs from Mosley to put him down.
I consider myself a boxing fan, I have seen all Miguel Cotto’s fight. From the begining he has not ran away from the best fighters out there. He could have taken an easier fighter than Clotty but he didn’t. Clotty is a true legitimate contender, no one want to fight him and every one runs from him. Maywhether has avoided Clotty, Ricky Hatton has avoided Clotty, but Cotto has no shame in his game and is out there to fight the best fighters pound per pound, thats why he’s not running from Clotty. It will be a tough fight and the one who has the most heart will win the fight. I think Cotto will prove one’s more what a true Champ is made of. Cotto by decision, but think he can also KO Clotty if he catches him with a left or right hook to the body or head.
The only Bloody Picture You will ever see of Miguel is when the other guys was “Cheating” with the loaded gloves.
The Man has “No Quit” in him.
He didn’t quit in the Margarita fight either, his corner saved him from punishment. That we ALL now know was from Margarita cheating ways. No puncher ever had done those things to Miguel.
Miguel will use those pictures as motivation to further his progress in the ring.
Me too!!!! So excited about this fight!!!
I’m in love with Clottey.
Clottey #1!!!
Clottey is no joke – you wait and see.
Clottey will hurt Cotto
Very poor and biased article. Cant belive this article even got uploaded? Writer probably still thinks Marion Jones was a top class athlete?
In my view Cotto is under rated if you take away a loss to a proven cheater he is unbeaten. To me none of A.M wins seem credible. He is a cheater.
Cotto will beat Clot over 12 rounds and may even drop him late on with his devastating body shots. I want to see him fight Manny.I actually think he will take manny. Anyone agree?
As far as I’m concerned, Cotto is still undefeated. By that, I mean that his fight with Margarito becomes a “no contest”, giving a record of 33-0-0-1. I don’t see Clottey adding a 1 in place of either 0, but I do think it will be a competitive fight.
Cotto has a tough fight in his hands but Cotto has the skill to pull it off. Then again, this is Joshua Clottey. He too has the skills to pull it off. This will be an interesting matchup. I analyzed the Cotto Margarito fight and I was amazed at how much punishment Cotto took. Granted Margarito most likely had illegal wraps, it took him all those rounds to put Cotto down. But the one thing I also noticed is that Margarito was taking Cotto’s hits. Now, it’s a possibility that Cotto doesn’t hit as hard as we think he does or that his punches were slowed down due to the punishment he was taking. Now, he’s going up against Clottey, a boxer I feel is better skilled than Margarito. Don’t get me wrong, Margarito is good but he thinks he’s Ironman and feels he can take everyone’s punches. Well, Mosley showed us a thing or two about Margarito. As far as Clottey goes, he’s a hard puncher and moves around more than Margarito. Also, I don’t think he’ll be underestimating Cotto. I think he’ll be well prepared. Here’s hoping his stamina will last or else it will be an easy fight for Cotto. The only problem with Clottey is the whole Jermain Taylor syndrome. He has a tendency to slow down in the later rounds. But, if Clottey has been working on his stamina, then we have a fight worth waiting for, unless they decide to do the whole Mayweather Jr. thing and just play defense and pick their shots. If that’s the case, these two talented boxers will never get the respect they deserve. They need to prove themselves, and hopefully they do on June 13.
Who was Tarzan’s favourite boxing companion? It was Cheetah NOT Antonio Margar-Cheetah. But let’s drop the Margar and call him Cheetah. Ha, ha!
Seriously, I picked Cotto to beat Cheetah but to lose to Mosley. Both fights technically played out the same with Cotto running for his life. One, he was KO-ed by loaded gloves and two he got a gift. Mosley later blitzed Cheetah. Clottey who is quite big & strong, and has great skills, was not bothered by Cheetah’s gloves. He was ahead until his injuries and still only lost closely.
Cotto has always had a suspect chin and stamina, maybe they are related. He has used tremendous will and instinct to survive, e.g. (low-blows). I feel these same flaws will do him in against Clottey. He does not have the strenght to keep off Clottey and his lack of stamina will mean a late KO or a very bad points loss. It should be a good fight for about 6-9 rounds.
cheating margarito Miguel cotto is better and is photo is so that margarito use margarito trap Miguel cotto is better than your best miguel cotto
Look at Cottos face during the Margarito fight.That was done with loaded gloves,end of story.In my,and most right thinking peoples eyes Cotto is still undefeated.
I suppose the fact that there is no proof Margarito had plastered hands what so ever means we should take the win over Cotto as a fair and honest one.
Screw that. If Margarito was a favourite against Mosley and still felt the need to try and cheat then im sure hed do it in a fight where he was a big underdog.
I personally totally disregard the one defeat on his record as a false loss and i think he is too.
Jennings was a tester, a proper Cotto was guna make short work of it, a post battered Cotto would be different mentally and wed see it but Jennings wouldnt be good enough to take much advantage of that and Cottos people would see what needed to be rekindled in him.
But he looked like the same old stalking powerful Cotto to me. So he sailed his tester and he wants to get back on track as soon as possible.
A fair few boxing fans i know believe Cotto maybe has bitten off more than he can chew here and Clotty is played down a little, Personally i think Clottys very good but Cotto is still the same beast he was, id of massivly favoured Cotto pre Margarito and i favour him just as much now.
YOU JUST LOVE TO SHOW THAT BLOODY PICTURE OF COTTO. I BET ITS LIKE A TROPHY FOR U FOR ALL THE HURT AND PAIN COMING BY DEVASTING LOSSES GIVEN BY PUERTO RICAN FIGHTERS TO MEXICAN FIGHTERS. MARGARITO IS A SOFT PUNCHING BUM WHO FOUND GLORY IN LOADING HIS GLOVES SO DON’T MENTION HIS VICTORIES CAUSE THEY ARE TAINTED FOR THE REST OF HIS LIFE. AS FOR CLOTTEY HE IS TOUGH DURABLE AND DECENT POWER. COTTO WILL IMPOSE HIS FIGHT LEADING TO A UD.
and theres me thinkin its relatively an easy fight for cotto…
You keep stating in column how CUT and BLOODY cotto was and seem to not even to slightly mention margarito’s hands were plaster! Obviously a plaster hands fan.
I can’t believe this whole article doesn’t say anything about margritos plaster hands but talks about how CUT cotto was and how much BLOOD there was. Obviously written by a plaster hands fan sad. PEREZ
I wonder why Perez doesn’t criticize Floyd for fighting JMM instead of Cotto. After all they’re on the same weight class.
This should be a great fight but Cotto only took shots for 2 rounds with plaster of paris in Margarito’s gloves so if he can stand up to that he should be able to take Clotteys best shots and keep going. As long as Cotto boxes like he did against Mosley he should win by decision.
Hey Manuel like Josh said Margocheato had loaded gloves but I guess it’s ok since he was MEXICAN so you support that behavior huh? As far as Clottey goes slow but durable. Cotto by decision boriquas stand up go Cotto!