By Dan Ambrose: Miguel Cotto (39-4, 32 KO’s) totally dominated a weak-kneed WBC middleweight champion Sergio Martinez (51-3-2, 28 KO’s) in stopping him in the 10th round by a TKO on Saturday night at Madison Square Garden in New York. The fight was halted 6 seconds into the 10th round due to Martinez being cut over his right eye, and him being too beat up to continue.
Cotto knocked Martinez down 4 times in the fight with 3 knockdowns occurring in the 1st round and the final knockdown in the 9th.
You could tell that both of Sergio’s knees weren’t strong when he came out for the 1st round, as he walked around like an old man on bad knees. Both knees looked bad for Sergio, and he seemed to have problems planting his feet when throwing punches and when moving around the ring.
Martinez was nailed by a hard left hook from Cotto early in the 1st round that sent Martinez staggering backwards on knees that looked rubbery. Cotto then went after him and knocked Martinez down with a left hook to the head. Moments later, Cotto knocked Martinez down with another left hook. Before the round ended, Cotto got credit for a third knockdown, but it was really a push by Cotto and the referee blew the call and ruled it a legit knockdown.
After struggling through round 2, Martinez edged the 3rd round by landing some nice left hands to the head and jabs. However, he stilled seemed to have problems bending his knees and he didn’t look strong.
“This was the biggest achievement of my career,” Cotto said after the fight. In talking about his first knockdown of Martinez in the 1st round, Cotto said “I hit him with a hard punch and I just go for him.”
Cotto said he’s not sure who he’ll fight next. “I want to talk to Freddie [Roach] and whatever he wants to do, we’re going to do.”
Knowing Roach, he’ll want Cotto to fight Manny Pacquiao, but that fight won’t be able to happen because Pacquiao and his adviser Michael Koncz will want a catch-weight to where Cotto would have to melt down to 150 or something in that range in order to take the fight. Cotto’s new WBC middleweight title wouldn’t be on the line for the fight because of how low Pacquiao would likely want him to come in.
Martinez said “I got hit with a hand when I was cold, and I never came back from that. My trainer [Pablo Sarmiento] sees things better from the outside than I do. I respect his decision. He caught me cold from the beginning and it was too hard to recover from that.”
Sarmiento said that Martinez’s surgically repaired knees weren’t strong, saying “I knew his knee wasn’t strong early in the fight.”
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