(Photo: Tom Casino/Showtime) By Dan Ambrose: Oscar De La Hoya, the president of Golden Boy Promotions, is very worried about Miguel Cotto’s next fight against WBA World junior middleweight champion Austin Trout (25-0, 14 KO’s) on December 1st. De La Hoya doesn’t like this match-up for the short 5’7″ Cotto and he feels that Cotto might have made a mistake in taking this fight given that he’s got bigger money options available against the likes of WBC junior middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez next year.
De La Hoya said to Boxingmundial.com “He [Trout] has everything to win and nothing to lose…It’s a dangerous fight. I personally don’t like it…very difficult. Unpredictable.”
I agree with De La Hoya’s thoughts, but I think the fight has got to happen. If you’ve got a guy like Cotto who’s gotten a little older and is ready to be ripped apart by the young lions like Trout, it’s got to be done.
You can’t protect the lion because then all you’ll be doing it putting him in with weak opposition. We already saw Cotto fighting weak guys in Yuri Foreman and Ricardo Mayorga. It would be disappointing if Cotto is brought back down to lesser guys just to keep him winning. I think it’s good that he’s fighting Trout, because this will prove that Cotto still belongs among the top names and not just a figurehead from the past.
The 31-year-old Cotto isn’t old by any means but he’s been in a lot of hard fights in the last five years, and his stamina has never been good to begin with. At this point in his career, Cotto is like an 8 round fighter. Once he’s forced to go past the 8th, he’s vulnerable.
De La Hoya no doubt would like to see Cotto fight Saul Alvarez next year, because that would be a good fight for Golden Boy to soak in the cash in pay per view. But Trout is going to have a big say so in that fight happening. If he can take Cotto deep on December 1st at Madison Square Garden, in New York, then Trout will have an excellent chance of drowning Cotto in front of his own fans.
It won’t be a bad thing because that’s the way the sport is. The old get old, and the young take over. Cotto is becoming an old lion now and Trout is ready to take him down on December 1st. Cotto then could adapt and become a good gate keeper type fighter or he could move up in weight and try his hand at middleweight.
Trout has the size advantage to give Cotto problems, a lot of them. This isn’t a completely shot and slow as molasses Antonio Margarito Cotto’s fighting on December 1st. This isn’t Yuri Foreman or Ricardo Mayorga. Trout is a lot better skilled than those fighters and he’s got more speed and power as well. Trout can do everything and he’s got that youth that will power him through to the finish. I don’t know that Cotto is going to be able to deal with all the advantages that Trout has going for him.
Comments are closed.