By Dan Ambrose: Former three division world champion Miguel Cotto (37-4, 30 KO’s) is looking to end his two-fight losing streak on September 28th against former IBF junior middleweight champion Cornelius Bundrage (32-5, 19 KO’s) at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
For some reason Cotto has selected the 40-year-old Bundrage to fight instead of a softer target or a bigger name to where he’ll get a bigger payday and less fallout if he were to lose.
Bundrage is plenty tough and dangerous for a fighter like Cotto, and I think this fight could go badly for Cotto unless he somehow is able to out-box Bundrage. I don’t think Cotto will be able to KO Bundrage because he has a really good chin and I can’t see Cotto being able to dent it.
Cotto has lost his last two fights to Floyd Mayweather Jr and Austin Trout, and looked bad in both fights. In Cotto’s defeat to Trout, he looked like a partially shot fighter. Trout was able to out-box him and make Cotto look real bad.
The reason why Bundrage is such a bad match-up for Cotto is because Bundrage can really punch and he’s incredibly dangerous for the first 8 rounds, and that’s probably all it’ll take for Bundrage to give Cotto a real beat down and either stop him or take away his confidence enough to cruise the rest of the way to a 12 round decision.
Cotto instead should be looking to get in line for a fight with WBA/WBC junior middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez or rematches with Manny Pacquiao or Mayweather.
Those fights make a lot more sense than Cotto fighting Bundrage and likely getting knocked out or beaten up. I think Bob Arum of Top Rank would jump at the chance of matching Pacquiao with Cotto again as long as Cotto were willing to melt down to 147 to give Pacquiao another advantage with the weight like he did in 2009 when the two fighters fought at a catch-weigh of 145.
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