Cotto has an advantage over Canelo due to Roach, says Arum

By Boxing News - 06/28/2015 - Comments

1-cotto (9)By Dan Ambrose: WBC middleweight champion Miguel Cotto (40-4, 33 KOs) is really up against it in his next fight against the younger 24-year-old Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (45-1-1, 32 KOs) next September in their fight in November on HBO Championship Boxing.

Cotto will be facing his first quality opponent in three years since his loss to Austin Trout in 2012. Top Rank promoter Bob Arum thinks that Canelo is the favorite in this fight due to his youth and the fact that he hasn’t been involved in as many wars as the 34-year-old Cotto. However, Arum sees Cotto’s trainer Freddie Roach as being a huge asset for him, because if Roach’s ability to put together good game plans for his fighters.

With Roach as his trainer, Cotto has a chance of beating Canelo.

“I’m looking forward to Canelo-Cotto. That should be a very good fight,” Arum said to esnewsreporting. When asked who he believes will win, Arum said “Canelo. I think Canelo is the fresher guy. I think Miguel has been through wars and is not as fresh. He’s sort of on the downside of his career. But again, Miguel has Freddie Roach. I think Freddie is a great trainer and that gives Miguel a big of an advantage,” Arum said.

There are only so many things that Roach can come up with for Cotto to do against Canelo, but he may not need to do a lot in order to beat the 24-year-old Mexican star. Roach is obviously going to have Cotto using his jab and left hook to nail Canelo each time he comes near him. But the mobility that Cotto has shown recently could be an even bigger factor for him, because Canelo really struggled in his fights against Floyd Mayweather Jr., Erislandy Lara and Austin Trout when they used movement against him.

Cotto doesn’t move as well as Lara and Mayweather, but he moves well enough to give Canelo a lot of problems. But what makes Cotto more difficult than Lara and Mayweather is his punching power and his excellent jab. Those fighters weren’t able to fire back and hurt Canelo the way that Cotto will be able to do.

Cotto can stay in the pocket for short periods of time and give Canelo a lot of problems. If things get tough in the pocket, then Cotto will be able to move around the ring to avoid Canelo. When Canelo moves around a lot, he gets red in the face just from the movement alone. He doesn’t need to be pushed into exchanges for him to get tired out. That will play in Cotto’s favor because he’ll be able to wear Canelo down by using movement at times.

I’m not sure that Canelo can take Cotto’s power if he hits him clean with his best shots. We saw how James Kirkland had Canelo hurt in their fight on May 9h. Canelo was shook up a couple of times, and he also appeared to gas out after only two rounds. If Canelo gasses out against Cotto, it’s going to be over quickly with Cotto routing him.



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