By Dan Ambrose: WBC middleweight champion Sergio Martinez (51-2-2, 28 KO’s) expects to ruin the goal of Miguel Cotto (38-4, 31 KO’s) of him winning a fourth division world title when they meet each other in two months on June 7th on HBO pay-per-view at Madison Square Garden in New York, New York. Sergio has no doubts in his mind that he’ll be knocking Cotto out, and keeping his World Boxing Council 160lb title.
Martinez thinks that the only reason why the 33-year-old Cotto wants to fight him now is because he thinks his knee is still hurt from his last two fights against Martin Murray and Julio Cesar Chavez Jr, and wants to take advantage of this. Martinez says his knee is now 100% after he’s rested it and had it repaired.
“Cotto never wanted to face me before, he’s only facing me now because he believes my knee is damaged too much,” Sergio said to Boxing Socialist. “I cannot see this fight going to the judges’ cards, so, yes, I will knock him out.”
Martinez is probably right. Cotto showed zero interest in fighting him until recently when Martinez developed knee problems stemming from his fight against Chavez Jr. in 2012. Martinez’s knee problems continued into his last title defense against Martin Murray last year, and it’s kept him out of the ring ever since. Martinez didn’t rehab his knee the way he should have after he had surgery on it, and that ultimately caused him problems in the Murray fight.
For fighters who have never had surgery on their knees before, it’s difficult for them to rehab their knees unless they’re working with an expert that can take them through the proper strength exercises on a daily basis so that they rehab their surgically repaired knees the right way.
Cotto, 5’7”, has rejuvenated his career with a win over Delvin Rodriguez and with the addition of trainer Freddie Roach, who has him throwing more left hooks. However, Cotto is still basically the same fighter who Antonio Margarito chopped down in their first fight in 2008, and he’s still the same guy that Manny Pacquiao knocked out in their fight in 2009. Cotto was throwing tons of left hooks back then, and yet he was still stopped by both of those fighters. The thing with left hooks is that they mainly work against fighters who are in close range so that they can land.
Cotto’s left hooks will be useless if Martinez stays on the outside and peppers him for 12 rounds with his long jab. Martinez will use movement, his jab and in and out attacks to turn Cotto’s face into a likely bloody mess on June 7th. That’s pretty much how it’s going to go.
It’s really nice that Cotto has Roach as his new trainer, because he’ll at least help out in the build up to the fight with his trash talking, but that’s really the extent of Roach’s ability to have any really positive affect for this fight. He’s not going to lead Cotto to victory by telling him to throw left hooks, because that’s a tool that won’t work in this fight.
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