Roach says Cotto wants Mayweather rematch

By Boxing News - 10/03/2013 - Comments

mayweather223By Dan Ambrose: Trainer Freddie Roach says his fighter Miguel Cotto (37-4, 30 KO’s) is gunning for a big rematch against Floyd Mayweather Jr. in 2014 after Cotto takes care of his opponent for this Saturday night Devlin Rodriguez (28-6-3, 16 KO’s) and then beats either Saul “Canelo” Alvarez or Sergio Martinez.

This could be the only way that one of Roach’s fighters is able to face Mayweather Jr., as we already saw how Roach’s #1 fighter Manny Pacquiao had a couple chances to fight Mayweather go up in smoke for various reasons.

Roach thinks that Cotto will make easy work of Sergio or Canelo for some reason. It’s hard to imagine that happening when you look at how bad Cotto looked in losing his last fight to Austin Trout last December.

Roach said to WBC “I think Miguel is going to win. He might fight against Canelo Alvarez or Sergio Martinez and easily beat them, so he can have a rematch with Floyd Mayweather.”

Sergio Martinez and Canelo would likely run over Cotto and give him a real bad beating if those fights happen. Roach is really overestimating Cotto’s talent level and how much he has left in the tank at 32.

It’s pretty much going to take a win over the likes of Canelo or Sergio or maybe both for Cotto get a rematch against Floyd, because the fact is Cotto has lost his last 2 fights and he wasn’t actually won a fight in 2 years. Why would Mayweather Jr. want to fight a guy like that when a lot fans see Cotto as being past his best?

There’s no point in Mayweather taking his career backwards to revisit an opponent that he already beat in the past? What made Mayweather’s win over Cotto even more interesting was that he did it by going toe-to-toe with the Puerto Rican fighter in fighting his style and he was able to get the better of him.

Mayweather Jr. could have easily have boxed Cotto’s head off by staying on the outside, pot-shotting, moving, and making Cotto miss all night long with his shots. Instead of doing that, Mayweather showed mercy on Cotto by brawling with him and giving him a chance to win the fight. Even then, Cotto still couldn’t beat Mayweather.

If I was Cotto, I wouldn’t assume anything about his fight on Saturday against Delvin Rodriguez at the Amway Center, in Orlando, Florida. That’s going to be a very tough fight for Cotto, and he might even lose it.

Austin Trout sees Cotto winning by a close decision, and thinks it’s going to be a much tougher fight than what people think it is. Trout easily beat Rodriguez last year by a one-sided 12 round unanimous decision, but that’s Trout. He’s a very good fighter with slick boxing skills, and good size.

Cotto can’t do the same kinds of things that Trout did because he doesn’t have the size, speed or defensive skills to dominate Rodriguez. About the best that Cotto can hope for is that he maybe overpowers Rodriguez early.

If that doesn’t happen then it’s going to be a long night for Cotto where he’s going to take a ton of punishment.

The Cotto-Rodriguez fight will be televised on HBO, so you can expect Rodriguez to be going all out to beat Cotto because of all the people watching the fight. This is going to be the best version of Rodriguez that people have seen for a long time.



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