Felix Trinidad Picks Canelo over Cotto, Discredits Cotto’s Recent Wins

By Raj Parmar - 07/10/2015 - Comments

1-CaneloKirklandWorkout3By Raj Parmar: Puerto Rican boxing icon Felix Trinidad is seemingly not a huge fan of his countryman and current middleweight champion Miguel Cotto. As the megabout between Cotto and popular Mexican star Saul “Canelo” Alvarez gets closer to being finalized for later this year, Trinidad is siding with Canelo to get the victory.

While it is one thing to pick who you really feel is going to win a fight, Felix seems to go out of his way to play down Cotto’s recent wins.

“Canelo has a big chance of beating Cotto by his strength,” Trinidad stated per primerahora.com, “Canelo has fought three class boxers (Trout, Lara, Kirkland). Cotto has not fought the quality boxers recently. (Delvin Rodriguez) is not an elite boxer. Martinez was a little hurt in both knees. Then came a fight against Geale, who fought at 157. Those three pounds he lost were very bad. He was not 100%.”

While it is surprising that the former three division champion would tarnish Cotto’s resume in such a way, Trinidad seemingly has never taken too much like toward his successor. When Cotto took on Zab Judah back in 2007, Judah had openly stated that Trinidad had encouraged him to take down Cotto. Miguel would go on to stop Judah and begin his climb into boxing stardom.

After taking down Martinez for the middleweight crown a year ago, Cotto became the only Puerto Rican boxer in history to win titles in four different divisions. Puerto Rico is definitely a country that takes boxing very seriously and fighters who come out of the island have a very high sense of pride when competing in the ring. Comments such as these made by Trinidad makes one wonder if he feels Cotto is surpassing his legacy as Miguel takes his career forward as the middleweight champion of the world.

In 1999, Trinidad fought top boxing star Oscar De La Hoya in a “Fight of the Millennium” match that saw Trinidad win a very controversial decision in a fight most felt De La Hoya clearly won. If Cotto is able to decisively beat Canelo in a similarly massive Puerto Rico vs Mexico title fight (although Oscar was American, the match fed into the country rivalry due to Oscar’s Mexican background), it makes one wonder if Trinidad will actually be happy for his countryman or resentful of Cotto’s glory.

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