Cotto’s going to expose Sergio Martinez, says Roach

By Boxing News - 05/29/2014 - Comments

roach32432By Dan Ambrose: Miguel Cotto’s trainer Freddie Roach can’t see where WBC middleweight champion Sergio Martinez (51-2-2, 28 KO’s) has any real advantage over his fighter Miguel Cotto (38-4, 31 KO’s) except in one area and that athleticism. Roach rates Cotto as being stronger, faster, better defensively, more skilled and smarter. Roach seems to have created a superman in the short amount of time that he’s been working on rebuilding the 33-year-old Cotto, but we still don’t know whether he’s any better than he ever was.

We’re going to find out on June 7th when he fights Sergio Martinez at Madison Square Garden. If Roach is correct about Cotto being a whole new fighter, then we could see him beat Sergio somehow. But if Roach has just been talking in order to pump Cotto up and make himself look better in the process, we’re about to find that out as well.

We already know what Sergio did to one of Roach’s fighters in the past when he easily beat Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. in their 2012 fight. Roach blames that loss on Chavez Jr. not being dedicated with his training. In other words, Sergio didn’t get much credit from Roach for beating Chavez Jr. Will Roach give Martinez credit if he beats Cotto or will he come up with some excuse for why he failed?

“I think he’s [Martinez] a great athlete, but I don’t think he’s a great boxer. Miguel’s a much more knowledgeable fighter and we’ll expose him in the fight and we’ll expose how little he knows,” Roach said to RingTV.com. “His [Martinez] defense is so poor…He’s [Cotto] got more power than Chavez did. I tell you, this is not going to last 4 rounds.”

Roach is really giving Cotto the works with the compliments. It would seem a lot more believable if Cotto had actually beaten someone good in the last couple of years so that Roach would seem more believable, but with Cotto’s last real win coming three years ago against a past his best Antonio Margarito in 2011, it’s difficult to see Cotto as being good enough to do all the great things that Roach has been saying about him. Right now it would be good just to see if Cotto can make it the distance without swelling up and getting out-boxed by Sergio. If the fight is close and Cotto loses, I think that would be a major victory for him, because Austin Trout and Floyd Mayweather Jr. both handled him.



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