Geale: Miguel Cotto is in for a big surprise

By Boxing News - 06/05/2015 - Comments

1-Press Conference Cotto vs Geale 02 (2)By Dan Ambrose: Daniel Geale (31-3, 16 KOs) feels like he’s being totally overlooked by the 34-year-old Miguel Cotto (39-4, 32 KOs) for their fight this Saturday night at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.

Geale thinks Cotto and his team are totally focused on their next fight against Saul “Canelo” Alvarez rather than the present one. He thinks they’re only thinking about the money fight against the 24-year-old Canelo.

That’s why Geale believes he’s going to go out there on Saturday box circles around Cotto, and expose him the same way that Austin Trout and Floyd Mayweather Jr. both did when they used their boxing skills to beat Cotto three years ago. Geale notes that his fighting style is different from theirs, but he still thinks he can out-box Cotto and get the victory.

The Cotto-Geale fight will be televised on HBO this Saturday, June 6th at 10:30 p.m. ET/PT. Cotto’s WBC middleweight title will be on the line. It’s been exactly one year since Cotto last fought in June of 2014 when he beat an aging 39-year-old, one-legged Sergio Martinez.

“They’re going to be in for a big surprise,” Geale said. “The confidence [with Cotto] is too high. Cotto is a much different fighter [than Gennady Golovkin]. He’s a small fighter that does fight a lot differently than Triple G. I know what I need to do and that’s my main focus. The only thing they really got against us is the 157 pound limit. The biggest thing I need to remember is not to fall into Cotto’s traps. They believe it [the catch-weight] will help him later on in the fight,” Geale said.

I think a lot of boxing fans believe that Cotto and his team are totally overlooking Geale. They clearly saw how Gennady Golovkin was able to destroy him in 2014 in three rounds, and they obviously believe that they’ll be able to do the same thing. The thing is that Golovkin is a much different fighter than Cotto, with better boxing skills, more size and definitely more punching power. Golovkin is better at cutting off the ring than Cotto, and he’s got a longer reach. Geale moved well, and would have escaped normal middleweights to go the full 12 rounds, but Golovkin did a great job of forcing him to brawl, and Geale subsequently was obliterated in 3 rounds without putting up much of a fight.

The catch-weight for the fight could weaken Geale, but that likely won’t happen until the later rounds after the 8th. If Geale has done well up until then, he could have enough left to box his way to a victory in the last four rounds of the fight.

“If I focus on my boxing skills, my footwork, my movement, those are the things I’ve seen in the past that give Miguel Cotto a lot of trouble,” Geale said. “If I stick to my guns and don’t go out and do anything stupid and try to knock him out, I have got a chance. I think Cotto and his camp are looking past me. They’re looking for the big money fights. They don’t believe I’m going to put up that much of a fight. I’m not here to lose. I didn’t come over here to dance around for 12 rounds. I came over here to fight. Obviously, I’m not going to stand toe-to-toe and see who can punch the hardest to the body,” Geale said.

Geale needs to use the same movement that he did in his fights against Anthony Mundine and Felix Sturm. Cotto will likely have a lot of problems trying to land his shots if Geale chooses to stick and move the entire time, and not stand still for too long.



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