(Photo credit: Gene Blevins – Hoganphotos/Roc Nation Sports/Golden Boy Promotions) By Dan Ambrose: Facing a hostile crowd today in his first stop of his four-city promotional tour with former WBA/WBC junior middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (45-1-1, 32 KOs), WBC middleweight champion Miguel Cotto (40-4, 33 KOs) promised the pro-Canelo crowd in Los Angeles, California that he will be showing them what he’s made of on November 21st when he faces the 25-year-old Canelo on HBO pay-per-view from the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The crowd booed Cotto and his management constantly in letting them know that they’re not welcome. Cotto kept his composure the best he could under the circumstances.
“On Nov. 21, I’m going to show the world what Miguel Cotto is made of,” Cotto said.
Cotto’s trainer Freddie Roach said “we will win by knockout, thank you.”
Roach was on the stage and off of it in less than a minute. He wanted no part in speaking to the pro-Canelo crowd.
Face off.. pic.twitter.com/JLnLOzadr2
— Lance Pugmire (@latimespugmire) August 25, 2015
“I am confident. I have the strength and the speed. That’s why I’m confident I’m going to win the fight,” Canelo said. “Miguel Cotto is a great fighter and that’s what motivates me.”
The 34-year-old Cotto seemed to gain confidence when he was standing next to Roach on the stage. Cotto made it a point of having Roach by his side when he was standing up there after they had spoken. It’s pretty clear that Cotto is going to depend on Roach every step of the way to try and beat the younger Canelo in this fight.
All I can say is I hope for Cotto’s sake that Roach has a good game plan for this fight with plenty of backup plans, because if he only has one game plan for Cotto like he did for his fighter Manny Pacquiao in his loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr. on May 2nd of this year, then things are going to go badly for Cotto. He’ll be blown out by Canelo just like James Kirkland was last May in their fight in Houston, Texas.
Canelo was stunned by Kirkland in the early going of that fight. If Canelo can’t take a hard head shot in this fight, then I see Cotto winning. We already know that Cotto has a good chin and can take a lot of punishment. We don’t know that about Canelo.
Canelo looked like he was hurt in the Kirkland fight, and Mayweather had Canelo hurt as well on one occasion. This is going to be a really advanced opponent for Canelo in terms of boxing skills and punching power. If he doesn’t get Cotto out of there quickly on November 21st then it’s quite possible we’ll see Cotto retain his WBC title.
Comments are closed.