Cotto not worried about Daniel Geale rehydrating to 170+

By Boxing News - 06/01/2015 - Comments

1-Cotto5By Dan Ambrose: WBC middleweight champion Miguel Cotto (39-4, 32 KOs) isn’t worried in the slightest in the potential of his opponent Daniel Geale (31-3, 16 KOs), who is a legitimate middleweight, rehydrating from the 157lb catch-weight all the way into the mid-170s by the time the two fighters face each other this Saturday, June 6th, on HBO Championship Boxing from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.

Cotto feels that his experience will negative whatever weight advantage that the 34-year-old Geale has in this fight. Cotto will likely be no heavier than 160, which means he could be giving away 10-15 pounds against a 170+ pound Geale in this fight.

“He [Geale] can come in at whatever weight he wants,” Cotto said to Fighthype. “I will work on what weight I feel most comfortable at and we’ll see if the experience factor will influence the fight more than the height and weight factor.”

What could be even more of a factor in this fight besides weight is Geale’s height and reach advantage. At 5’10”, Geale has a three inch height and a four inch reach advantage over Cotto. That’s fairly significant. If you watched Cotto’s failed effort against Austin Trout in 2012, you’ll have noticed that the 5’9 ½” Trout, who is even shorter than Geale, was able to jab and move constantly to keep Cotto from getting his shots off. It was the same Cotto that beat a broken down Sergio Martinez last year in June.

The only difference is Trout could actually move around the ring to avoid the shorter fighter. Sergio Martinez couldn’t move due to a bad knee and he was forced to fight it out in a stationary manner. It was great match-making on Cotto, his manager Gaby Penagaricano and trainer Freddie Roach’s part to select an old guy with a bad knee in Sergio Martinez, because things might have been much different if they fought someone that could actually use their legs to avoid the shorter 5’7” Cotto the way Austin Trout did.

“Miguel Cotto has become accustomed to giving great fights in all his career,” Cotto said. “Right now it’s Daniel Geale’s turn, and then after that we can talk about others.”

The fight that fans are eager to know about is Cotto vs. Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. That’s the fight that presumably will be next in line for Cotto, win or lose on Saturday against Geale. The Cotto-Canelo fight is expected to go ahead no matter what the outcome is for the Cotto vs. Geale fight. There is too much money that can be grabbed in the Cotto vs. Canelo fight for it not to still take place.

Cotto obviously doesn’t want to talk about it because he wants to focus on Geale. But he also likely doesn’t want to give Canelo the feeling that he has the fight guaranteed because it helps Cotto in the negotiations if he leaves his options open to fighting other fighter and not just Canelo.

If Geale decides to hit and move all night long, it’s going to make it tough for Cotto to land his big left hook on a consistent enough basis to win rounds. The problem with a left hook is that it requires for your opponent to either stand still or be close enough for you to land it.

If your opponent sticks and moves constantly by throwing mostly jabs and occasional right hands, it takes away the left hook completely. It’s one of the easiest punches to nullify because the left hook needs to be thrown from fairly close range for it to be effective.



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