By Allan Fox: Trainer Freddie Roach thinks that his fighter Miguel Cotto (40-5, 33 KOs) did enough to deserve the win tonight in his fight against Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (46-1-1, 32 KOs) at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The younger 25-year-old Canelo won the fight by a 12 round unanimous decision, but more and more boxing fans are emerging who feel that the fight should have been either scored a draw or a close victory for Canelo. I had Canelo winning the fight 7 rounds to 5, but it was pretty close. It wasn’t what the judges scored the fight. They had it 117-111, 119-109 and 118-110 for Canelo.
“I’m not a judge but I thought [Cotto] won the fight,” Roach said afterwards.
Cotto reportedly didn’t come to the post-fight press conference for some reason.
Roach was pretty upset about the decision. He gave his best shot in getting Cotto ready for the fight. Roach said afterwards that Cotto will be moving back down to 154 to continue campaigning at that weight. Cotto really should move back down to welterweight, because he only rehydrates to around 160 for his fights.
There are plenty of welterweights like Keith Thurman, Shawn Porter, Tim Bradley and Marcos Maidana who rehydrate to around 160. There’s no reason for Cotto to move back down to 154, and there’s also no interesting fights for him in that division. All the important fights for Cotto are at 147 against the above mentioned fighters.
Roach said that he wanted to see Cotto back Canelo up more in the fight, because he felt he would have done well had he done that. Unfortunately, Cotto was giving away so much weight that he couldn’t back Canelo up.
Besides that, Cotto didn’t look nearly as strong or as heavy as he’d looked in his recent fights against Daniel Geale, Sergio Martinez and Delvin Rodriguez. I think Cotto might have over-trained for the Canelo fight by taking too much weight off.
One thing that could have made a big difference for tonight’s fight is if Cotto has used his left hook. Roach says that the reason why cotto didn’t throw his left hook was because he wanted him to throw his jab and right hand more.
It didn’t make much sense though because Roach had been saying for over a year now that one of the major improvements that he made in Cotto’s game was having him throw his left hook more. Why would Roach not have Cotto use his left hook for an important fight like this if he truly believes that it helped improve him as a fighter?
Roach went on to say that Cotto is near the end of his career, but he has some more fights he wants to take before retiring. Roach says he wants to see Canelo face Gennady Golovkin. He may get his wish if Canelo is willing to face Golovkin in 2016, but it’s likely that fight won’t be taking place in his next fight. That means Canelo would need to vacate his newly won WBC 160lb title if he doesn’t face Golovkin next.
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