Roach predicts Cotto win over Sergio Martinez by 4th round knockout

By Boxing News - 05/29/2014 - Comments

roach5637By Dan Ambrose: Trainer Freddie Roach doesn’t see Miguel Cotto (38-4, 31 KO’s) having any problems with WBC middleweight champion Sergio Martinez (51-2-2, 28 KO’s) in their fight on June 7th at Madison Square Garden, New York.

Roach feels that he’s rejuvenated the 33-year-old Cotto, and that he’ll blast Sergio out in just 4 rounds when the two fighters go at it in their HBO pay-per-view televised fight. So in other words, Sergio will last just one more round than Cotto’s last opponent Delvin Rodriguez did in his fight with Cotto last October.

“They say the fight goes nine rounds I think we win in four rounds. Miguel’s ring generalship alone will win this fight,” Roach said via Fightnews.com. “We have two more days of sparring, then four rounds of work and that’s it. We are ready to fight.”

Cotto hasn’t been a quick knockout puncher during his career, and it’s hard to imagine that he’s going to start now at the ripe age of 33 just because Roach is telling Cotto to throw his left hook all the time. If you look at Cotto’s fights where he wasn’t knocking guys out early, he was throwing his left hook all the time and still not scoring early knockouts. It just seems like Roach is seeing things that aren’t there. Cotto will improve somewhat if Roach has him loading up with left hooks 24/7, but he’ll also leave himself open for Sergio’s straight left hands to the head if Cotto throws nonstop left hooks on June 7th.

Roach is trying to rebuild Cotto’s career at this point. Cotto’s lost 2 out of his last 3 fights in defeats against Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Austin Trout. In his last fight against Delvin Rodriguez, Cotto’s losing streak was snapped with him stopping Rodriguez in three rounds, but Cotto was matched against a guy that was totally dominated by Trout not long before Cotto got to him. You can’t really get excited about a Cotto win over Rodriguez because he wasn’t facing a top 5 guy. You can make an argument that Delvin Rodriguez shouldn’t be ranked in the top 10 because he’s never beaten anyone that you can call a good fighter.

If Cotto goes after Martinez early looking for a knockout, he could wind up taking a beating and getting knocked out. With Sergio’s power, he very well could knock Cotto out with a single left hand to the head if he catches him coming forward.



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