Roach: I like our [Cotto] chances of beating Golovkin

By Boxing News - 05/27/2015 - Comments

roach293By Dan Ambrose: WBC middleweight champion Miguel Cotto’s trainer Freddie Roach says he saw some vulnerability in WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin (33-0, 30 KOs) after watching his 6th round knockout win over Willie Monroe Jr. (19-2, 6 KOs) on May 16th of this month, and Roach thinks Cotto can beat Golovkin.

Roach is convinced that with the right game plan that he would devise, Cotto would beat Golovkin. The problem is getting Cotto to agree to a fight against Golovkin may prove to be impossible because Cotto is still following the beat of his own drum and fighting the guys he wants to fight.

Instead of facing Golovkin or Saul “Canelo” Alvarez for his next fight on June 6th, Cotto is fighting Daniel Geale, a guy that Golovkin knocked out in three rounds last year. Roach obviously gave Cotto a green light to take that fight, but you have to wonder why would Roach green light that fight if he truly believes that Cotto can beat Golovkin.

“Some things were exposed in that fight [Monroe], so I like our chances,” Roach said to Fighthype about Cotto having a good chance of beating Golovkin. “You have to be careful with Golovkin early because he’s a really quick starter. The thing is he fatigues a little bit, and he doesn’t like body shots so much. I’ll come up with a good game plan,” Roach said.

There really wasn’t much that was exposed by Golovkin in the Monroe fight unless you don’t believe Golovkin that he purposefully carried Monroe for six rounds. Golovkin said that he could have taken Monroe out early in the fight, but he allowed him instead to continue fighting so that he could get some rounds in. If you look the difference in Golovkin’s punching power in rounds 2 and 6, and compare it to how he was throwing in rounds 3 through 5, you have to believe that Golovkin carried Monroe because it was like night and day. Golovkin punched a lot harder in the 2nd and 6th rounds compared to how he was punching in rounds 1, 3, 4 and 5.

Roach says that Golovkin is a quick starter, and that he loses punching power as his fights progress. I thought Golovkin was punching really hard in halting Martin Murray in the 11th round in their fight in February. But even if you buy what Roach is saying by thinking Golovkin mainly punches hard early in his fights, I don’t think Cotto will be able to survive getting nailed by Golovin repeatedly by huge shots for six rounds. I don’t see it happening. If a little guy like Manny Pacquiao was able to drop Cotto in the 3rd and 4th rounds in their fight in 2009, then you have to believe that Golovkin will be able to get to Cotto to knock him out by the 4th round. Roach won’t have to worry about Golovkin running out of gas later in the fight, because Cotto will be done early.

When told that Golovkin said that he purposefully let Monroe hit him in order to carry him some rounds, Roach said “Who lets people hit them? That’s ridiculous.”



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