Cotto says 159 lb. catch-weight was Sergio Martinez’s teams idea

By Boxing News - 05/22/2014 - Comments

cotto55By Dan Ambrose: Miguel Cotto (38-4, 31 KO’s) is saying that it wasn’t him that came up with the idea of fighting at a catch weight of 159 lbs. for his fight against WBC middleweight champion Sergio Martinez (51-2-2, 28 KO’s) on June 7th. Cotto says it was Martinez’s promoter Sampson Lewkowitcz that floated the idea, and they just went with what he said.

“That came from Sampson,” Cotto said in talking about 159lb catch-weight. “The first thing he said when we sat at the table was, ‘Sergio can’t run like before anymore and he wants to make his weight. He’s not going to be able to do less than 159 pounds.’ That was a petition from them, not us.”

It’s very difficult to believe that Sampson would have brought up the idea of a catch weight handicap that benefits Cotto and hurts Martinez without hearing first that Cotto’s team wanted the handicap. Why would Sampson do that? It doesn’t make sense at all unless he was asked about it by someone else in Cotto’s team.

Catch-weight or no, it’s going to be a very difficult fight for Cotto to win because his game is geared for the smaller fighters that let him bang on the inside, and Martinez isn’t a small guy, and he doesn’t fight on the inside. Before Martinez suffered knee injuries in back to back fights, Cotto had shown no interest in fighting him. But after the injuries, he suddenly showed interest in facing him.

Does Cotto want to fight Martinez because he thinks he can’t move around the ring like he used to when he had two healthy legs, or does he want to fight him because he’s now 39-years-old and has been out of the ring for over a year?

In talking about how he was beaten by a fighter the same size as Sergio in Austin Trout in 2012, Cotto said “You have Austin Trout, who is a younger fighter who has a lot of mobility and his style. You have Sergio Martinez, who is not a young guy. He has a couple of issues with his knees.”
So in other words, Cotto will be able to beat Sergio because he’s old and has knee problems? That’s what it seems like Cotto is saying. I wonder if Cotto would have agreed to fight Sergio if he was young with two good knees?



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