(Photo credit: Chris Farina/Top Rank) By Dan Ambrose: Former three division world champion Miguel Cotto (38-4, 31 KO’s) was talking like a real tough guy today in his press conference with WBC middleweight champion Sergio Martinez (51-2-2, 28 KO’s) to discuss his title challenge against him on June 7th. Their fight will be televised by HBO pay-per-view. It’s difficult to see the Cotto-Martinez fight as being worthy of being on PPV simply because Cotto has lost 2 out of his last 3 fights.
Cotto’s won 1 out of his last 3 fights, and that’s a pretty low standard to be asking fans to have to pay to see him fight. HBO might as well be picking out some of the other fighters that have lost 2 out of their last 3 fights and asking for fans to pay to see them, because frankly I don’t see the Cotto-Martinez fight being worthy of paying even a dime to see. It’s more regular HBO or ESPN than s a fight that fans should have to pay to see. That’s my view at least. When fighters start asking fans to pay to see them fight with 2 losses in their last 3 fights, I think that’s a sign that boxing is going downhill.
Cotto wants to try and capture his WBC 160 lb title in order to become a 4 division world champion when they meet up on HBO at Madison Square Garden in New York.
Never mind the fact that Cotto is facing what now is considered to be the 2nd best champion in the middleweight division in Martinez, who is rated by many fans to be behind WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin. Cotto still wants to win the WBC title so that he can have the title as a status symbol. In terms of an accomplishment, it would be rated below a win over Golovkin, and for that reason it’s probably not even worth it for Cotto other than for the payday he’ll get for the fight.
“I hope that Sergio is 100 percent and his knee is fine because I want no excuses after I defeat him,” Cotto said via ESPN.
That’s pretty bold talk for a guy who hasn’t beaten a really solid fighter since narrow win over Shane Mosley in 2007. Cotto has lost 2 out of his last 3 fights, and his last win came against Delvin Rodriguez. That’s not a really good fighter. Rodriguez is more of a fringe contender at 154 at best. Cotto was beaten in back to back fights before that against Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Austin Trout.
Cotto gave Mayweather a good test, but only because Mayweather decided to fight his type of fight. Cotto’s from 2011 to 2007 have come against Antonio Margarito with Antonio coming off of a year-long layoff following 3 separate eye surgeries, Ricardo Mayorga [past his prime by a considerable margin], Yuri Foreman, Joshua Clottey, Michael Jennings, Alfonso Gomez and Shane Mosley. Cotto has failed when taking on the really high quality fighters during his career. He’s beaten the B and C level guys, but he’s pretty much failed every time he’s head to fight someone good.
Sergio Martinez will without a doubt beat Cotto on June 7th unless he suffers a leg or hand injury. Cotto has had too many wars during his career, and like I said before, he’s never been able to beat the guys fighters at the top. It’s always been the weaker variety that he’s beaten. Cotto’s lack of size will lead to him getting soundly beaten by Sergio in this fight.
I see Cotto and Martinez as being the 2nd and 3rd best fighters in the middleweight division behind Golovkin. Since fans aren’t paying to see Golovkin’s fights on HBO, I don’t see it being worth it to pay to see the 2nd and 3rd best fighters.
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