Miguel Cotto vs. Rodriguez this Saturday on HBO

By Boxing News - 09/29/2013 - Comments

cotto24By Dan Ambrose: Miguel Cotto (37-4, 30 KO’s) fights Delvin Rodriguez (28-6-3, 16 KO’s) this Saturday night on October 5th in an important fight for him on HBO at the Amway Center in Orlando, Florida. Cotto has lost his last 2 fights, and he has to win this one if he wants to remain one of the major players in the sport.

HBO will probably still televise Cotto’s fights if he loses to Rodriguez, but it’ll be difficult to take Cotto seriously as a fighter if he can’t even beat the likes of Rodriguez. This guy isn’t in the same league as Cotto’s last two conquerors Austin Trout and Floyd Mayweather Jr., so Cotto shouldn’t lose to him in theory. But the problem Cotto hasn’t looked great even in the fights he’s won in his last three victories.

Antonio Margarito looked like he was on the verge of coming back on Cotto in their fight 2 years ago in 2011. The fight was stopped due to Margarito’s surgically repaired right eye closing up on him. Believe it or not, that was the last time Cotto won a fight, and that was 2 years ago. Before that, Cotto struggled to defeat Ricardo Mayorga in stopping him in the 12th round in March 2011.

Mayorga was pounding Cotto when he tried to mix it up with him early in the fight. The only reason Cotto won the fight was because he followed his then trainer Emanuel Steward’s advice in telling Cotto to box Mayorga instead of slugging with him. A younger Cotto would have gone toe-to-toe with Mayorga and been knocked out.

Delvin Rodriguez, 33, likes to slug it out with his opponents, and he’s pretty good at getting the better of B level fighters. Rodriguez has problems against fighters with good boxing skills, as we’ve seen with his losses to Trout and Ashley Theophane.

If Cotto tries to slug with Rodriguez instead of boxing him, he could end up just like Pawel Wolak did in his two fights against Rodriguez. Cotto is somewhat similar to Wolak with his fighting style, and it’s possible that Rodriguez will carve Cotto up this Saturday night if he tries to go after him the way that Wolak did and George Tahdooahnippah.

Cotto really isn’t any better off with new trainer Freddie Roach then he was with his last trainer. If Cotto was interested in changing trainers, he should have found a trainer that is good at teaching defense and tactics, because that’s what Cotto needs most of all.



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