Cotto ranks Canelo as Top 5 in his toughest opponents

By Boxing News - 10/08/2015 - Comments

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By Dan Ambrose: WBC middleweight champion Miguel Cotto (40-4, 33 KOs) thinks that former WBA/WBC 154lb champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (45-1-1, 32 KOs) is one of his tougher opponents, but clearly not comparable to other guys he’s faced before during his long 14-year pro career.

When asked by Michelle Beattie whether Canelo was a top 3 opponent all-time, Cotto said he’s top 5. Cotto will be able to know for sure where the 25-year-old Canelo ranks in his all-time list when he steps inside the ring with him next month on November 21st in their fight on HBO pay-per-view from the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada.

“I don’t know how Canelo can handle his nervous moments,” Cotto said on Jim Lampley’s program.

When asked where he ranked Canelo in terms of his top opponents during his career, Cotto said “Top 5. When I was at his age, I thought I could beat the world and I was wrong. Miguel Cotto since Freddie is the best Freddie.

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You can’t blame Cotto for not pouring praise over the head of Canelo because he’s been in the ring with a lot of very, very skillful fighters during his career, and Canelo doesn’t compare with many of them in terms of boxing skills. Cotto has been in the ring with Floyd Mayweather Jr., Antonio Margarito, Shane Mosley, Zab Judah, Austin Trout, Manny Pacquiao, Yuri Foreman, Joshua Clottey, Paulie Malignaggi, Carlos Quintana, Muhammad Abdullaev, Randall Bailey, DeMarcus Corley, and Ricardo Torres.

You can say that many of those fighters are better fighters than Canelo pound-for-pound. What Canelo has going for him is he’s a much heavier fighter than those guys. If you reduced Canelo’s size down to that of all of those fighters in terms of weight, my guess is Canelo would lose against many of them, especially a prime Judah, Mosley, Pacquiao. Clottey and Torres.

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Cotto, 5’7”, 160lbs, isn’t as tall or as heavy as the 5’9”, 175lb Canelo, but he has got the boxing skills and more than enough punching power to expose him much in the same way that Floyd Mayweather Jr., Erislandy Lara and Austin Trout did in their fights against Canelo. For Canelo to beat Cotto, he’s going to need to show some more skills than what we’ve seen from him in the past because he’s not looked good since he was beaten by Mayweather in 2013.

Canelo arguably lost the fight to Lar, and his other two recent fights were mismatches against past their prime fighters Alfredo Angulo and James Kirkland. Anyone would have looked good against those guys. You could have put Daniel Geale in with Angulo and Kirkland, and boxing fans would be now raving about Geale. The same goes for Lara. We saw what he did with Angulo, and he would likely have no problems beating a fighter like Kirkland.

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Canelo is going to be in a really bad place if he loses to Cotto on November 21st, because Canelo’s promoter Oscar De La Hoya is banking on him winning this fight to establish himself as the guy that replaced Mayweather as the No.1 PPV fighter in boxing for the next 10 years. If Canelo loses this fight, then De La Hoya is going to need to downsize his ambitions for his golden goose.



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