By Allan Fox: After having been out of the ring since last June in his mismatch against Daniel Geale, WBC middleweight champion Miguel Cotto (40-4, 33 KOs) has started his training camp with trainer Freddie Roach to get him ready to face the tough Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (45-1-1, 32 KOs) on November 21st at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The 34-year-old Cotto is taking his toughest fight since losing to Austin Trout in 2012. Cotto is going to need to prove once and for all in the Canelo fight whether Roach has rejuvenated him with his training techniques or if he’s merely been playing a trick on himself by thinking he has.
I know many boxing fans don’t believe for a second that Cotto has improved at all under Roach’s helm. They just think that Cotto’s promoters at Roc Nation Sports has started matching him against fighters that he can beat at this point in his career. It’s hard to say for sure whether Cotto has gotten better or not, because his opposition – Delvin Rodriguez, Sergio Martinez and Daniel Geale – weren’t very good at the point in their careers that he fought them.
“The energy at Wild Card is at an all-time high. Miguel is one of the hardest working men I know and he did not waste any time getting into the ring with me,” Roach said. “I know that we have the tools we need for a successful training camp that will put Miguel in the best position possible to beat Canelo.”
Roach is going to need to come up with a brilliant strategy for Cotto to win this fight because he’s going to be a giving away a lot of weight against the much heavier Canelo. This fight is going to be more of a junior middleweight against a true middleweight clash.
Cotto is clearly a junior middleweight who has been fighting carefully selected opposition for him to beat and look good against. Canelo is a large middleweight, who has been melting down in weight to fight against lighter junior middleweights.
For this fight, Canelo will still need to melt down 20 pounds to get down to the 155lb catch-weight. That’s not going to be easy for Canelo despite the fact that he’s been doing it a lot recently with his three consecutive catch-weight fights at 155 since his loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr.
“I am more than ready to get to work and am fully confident that the plan Freddie Roach has in place for our team is going to ensure that I am prepared to lock in this victory on November 21,” Cotto said.
Arum: I’m not going to schedule a fight for Pacquiao until he gets medical clearance
Former eight division world champion Manny Pacquiao is going to get a clearance from his surgeon Dr. Neal ElAttrache before his promoter Bob Arum is going to schedule a fight for him in early 2016.
Arum, 83, wants to make sure that Pacquiao’s surgically repaired right shoulder has properly healed before he’ll allow him to fight. I guess Arum doesn’t want to have Pacquiao wind up suffering another torn rotator cuff while he prepares for his next fight, which likely will be against Amir Khan in February or April of 2016.
Pacquiao recently had an MRI done on his shoulder in the Philippines at the Cardinal Santos Medical Center, and he said on his Instagram that his shoulder is doing well. But it’s possible that Arum will want the same procedure done in the United States as well.
Arum wants Pacquiao to come to the U.S to have Dr. ElAttrache check out his shoulder at his medical clinic in Los Angeles, California.
“He’s doing a million things right now,” Arum said via digitialjournal.com. “But I’m not going to make a fight for him until he sees (Dr. Neal) ElAttrache. ElAttrache said he won’t clear him until there’s an MRI.”
You would think that with modern technology, they could just send the MRI results from the Philippines to Dr. ElAttrache so that it satisfies his requirements for Pacquiao to have an MRI done before he can be cleared to train. But it’s possible that the doctor will want to see Pacquiao for himself before he’ll clear him to train. After all, he was the one that performed the surgery on him.
“Thank you to all the doctors. Very good progress. Glory to God. Successful MRI on my shoulder,” said Pacquiao on Instagram.
It’s possible that Pacquiao could finally meet up with Dr. ElAttrache in the next two weeks, as he’ll be traveling to the U.S to receive an award at the United Nations.
Roman Gonzalez: Brian Viloria will be a very hard fight
WBC flyweight champion Roman Gonzalez (43-0, 37 KOs) isn’t underestimating his opponent Brian Viloria (36-4, 22 KOs) ahead of their fight next month on October 17th on HBO pay-per-view from Madison Square Garden in New York. Gonzalez, 28, expects Viloria to give him a real tough battle from start to finish in their co-feature bout on the Gennady Golovkin vs. David Lemieux card.
“I believe that Brian Viloria is an excellent champion, a great fighter, a very hard fight,” Gonzalez said via RingTV.com.
This could be a tough fight like Gonzalez’s bout against Juan Francisco Estrada three years ago in 2012, or it could an easy one like Gonzalez’s recent 2nd round knockout win over Edgar Sosa last May. It could be an easier fight for Gonzalez because Viloria doesn’t have the same mobility that Estrada had when he lost a close 12 round decision to Gonzalez.
Estrada moved constantly to keep from being a stationary target against Gonzalez, and it kept him from being knocked out. But the strategy wasn’t good enough for him to get the victory. Viloria has never been a great mover, and he’s never really had to because he’s usually been the better puncher in his fights. On October 17th, Viloria will be facing someone younger and with better power than him in Gonzalez, and it’s going to be really tough for him to try and get a win in this fight.
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