By Dan Ambrose: Trainer Freddie Roach is interested in matching his fighter Miguel Cotto (37-4, 30 KO’s) against Saul “Canelo” Alvarez in the near future if the fight can get made. Roach thinks Canelo is a little flat-footed, slow of hand and not a really big puncher.
Roach feels those are the reasons why Floyd Mayweather Jr. was able to dominate the 23-year-old last Saturday night. Roach felt that if Canelo had more power then Mayweather wouldn’t have been able to stand in front of him the way he did.
Before he can start thinking about facing the red-haired Canelo, Cotto has to get past his next opponent Delvin Rodriguez (28-6-3, 16 KO’s) on October 5th at the Amway Center, in Orlando, Florida, USA.
Roach said to Husleboss.com “The guy [Canelo] didn’t have the firepower and hand speed to deal with him [Mayweather]…He stood right in front of Canelo at times, but Canelo didn’t do anything about it…He’s [Canelo] a little bit flat-footed, a little bit slow with his hands…definitely a good fight in the future for us.”
You would hope that Roach isn’t thinking too far into the future about the Canelo-Cotto fight because Cotto is about to turn 33 in October and he’s lost his last 2 fights to Austin Trout and Mayweather. If he gets beaten by Rodriguez on October 5th, it’s probably going to be over for Cotto. But even if he wins the fight he’s going to have to be matched carefully to keep him winning because if you throw him in with guys like Trout, Erislandy Lara or Vanes Martirosyan, he could end up losing to all three of them.
Cotto would definitely be a hard fight for Canelo if he can handle standing and trading with him. Cotto would be better off using movement to attack in and out, but Cotto can’t stand in front of Canelo because he’ll be giving up too much in the way of size. Canelo came into the fight with Mayweather at 165, but for a fight against Cotto, I would expect Canelo to be in the 170s.
Comments are closed.