By Dan Ambrose: Miguel Cotto 40-5, 33 KOs) hasn’t fought in 18 months and he hasn’t won a fight in the last 2 years, but the World Boxing Organization is still going to let the 36-year-old Puerto Rican face Yoshihiro Kamegai (27-3-2, 24 KOs) for their vacant WBO junior middleweight title on August 26 at the StubHub Center in Carson, California. Cotto-Kamegai will be televised on HBO World Championship Boxing.
It’s kind of surprising that HBO will be televising Cotto-Kamegai, because it’s such a bad fight. Cotto was a good fighter. I’m not sure if he is anymore given his near 2-year layoff, but he should be fighting better opposition than this if he’s going to be competing for the vacant WBO junior middleweight title. It’s shocking that HBO is going to televise this farce because Cotto and Kamegai because it’s such a bad fight. I can’t imagine that too many boxing fans will be tuning in to see Cotto beat up on a guy with an inflated ranking like Kamegai. The Japanese fighter still have unfinished business with the guys that have recently beaten him instead of being given a world title fight.
Cotto might have problems with Kamegai, because the Japanese fighter is known for being a slugger. Cotto is pretty old now and he hasn’t fought in ages. You just don’t know what you’re going to get with a small, old fighter like Cotto. If Kamegai doesn’t get knocked out in this fight, it could be a really grueling one for Cotto. He’s only 5’7”, and little more than a pumped light welterweight.
When you take an old guy like Cotto and have sit around for 2 years, you can’t guarantee a win for him. The guys that Cotto beat in the last 3 years were old timers and broken down fighters in Sergio Martinez, Daniel Geale and Delvin Rodriguez. Cotto hasn’t beaten a truly good fighter since his controversial win over Joshua Clottey in June 2009. Cotto’s last win over a really good fighter was his close win over Shane Mosley in 2007. That wasn’t even a prime Mosley. That was an older Mosley.
Here are the fighters that Cotto has beaten in the last 8 years:
– Daniel Geale – He was old when Cotto beat him.
– Sergio Martinez – He was old and with bad knee.
– Delvin Rodriguez – This was journeyman that Cotto fought in a tune-up/confidence booster type fight 2013.
– Antonio Margarito – Cotto beat Margarito with the Mexican fighter coming off a year layoff and 3 eye surgeries for a broken orbital bone. Margarito didn’t take a tune-up to test his eye before fighting Cotto. The fight ended up being stopped due to Margarito’s eye swelling up.
– Ricardo Mayorga – He was in his last 30s, heavy and arguably way over the hill when Cotto fought him in 2011.
– Yuri Foreman – Coming into the fight with a bad knee, Foreman limped around the ring, falling down over and over due to his bad knee. As bad as Foreman’s knee looked, it’s hard to believe he was allowed to fight.
– Joshua Clottey – Cotto arguably lost this fight. He got a 12 round decision, but Clottey appeared to do enough to deserve the win.
– Michael Jennings – a British domestic level fighter that Cotto fought in a record padding fight for the vacant WBO junior middleweight title.
Cotto is expected to face Juan Manuel Marquez in December. If Cotto has the WBO title after beating Kamaegai on August 26, it would setup a nice fight between two aging stars in Cotto and Marquez for the WBO strap in December. Marquez is expected back inside the ring in July in a tune-up fight.
Cotto and Kamegai will be fighting for the WBO junior middleweight title that was recently vacated by Saul Canelo Alvarez not long after he won it last September in beating Liam Smith. Canelo’s promoter Oscar De La Hoya justified Canelo fighting Liam Smith for the WBO 154lb title last September by saying that Smith was the best fighter in the 154lb division. That was a hard to swallow without going into hysteria from laughter, because Smith was viewed by many boxing fans as little than a paper champion with marginal skills.
At the time, the fighter that was viewed as the best in the 154lb division was Jermall Charlo, the IBF title holder. Jermall has since moved up to middleweight. The WBO’s top 15 ranking is kind of weak to say the least. There are only 2 fighters among the top 15 that I would consider good fighters and that’s Austin Trout and Erickson Lubin. The rest of the guys that the WBO has ranked are not great fighters.
Oddly enough, the WBO still has Jermell Charlo ranked in their top 15 despite him being the WBC junior middleweight champion. The WBO needs to update their rankings.
This is a move by the WBO that you can argue marginalizes the sanctioning body. It doesn’t make the WBO look good in letting an inactive fighter like Cotto fight a struggling fighter like Kamegai, who was recently beaten by Robert Guerrero, Alfonso Gomez and Johan Perez.
“I’m very excited to be back and showcase a high level fight for the fans,” Cotto said. “Kamegai is a great, tough fighter, but I will be ready for him and to capture the world title. I can’t wait to start training for this fight and get back in the ring on August 26.”
Unbelievably, Kamegai is ranked #5 by the WBO at junior middleweight. The reason why it’s very hard to believe is the fact that Kamegai’s record in his last 6 fights is 3-2-1. That’s journeyman level in my opinion. It’s possible for a fighter to have a record of 3-2-1 and still be considered a great fighter when they lost to talented opposition. That hasn’t happened with Kamegai. He was beaten by 38-year-old Alfonso Gomez and Roberto Guerrero in 2015. Kamegai was also beaten by Johan Perez in 2013. Kamegai was held to a draw in a fight that he appeared to lose against Jesus Soto Karass in April 2016.
With the news that Cotto is being allowed to fight for the WBO 154lb title against what amounts to be a high level journeyman in 34-year-old Kamegai, it already has a lot of boxing fans grumbling about the fight. The fans aren’t happy that a fighter like Cotto can sit out of the ring for almost 2 years and still be allowed to fight for a world title.
Cotto didn’t even win his last fight. He was beaten by Saul Canelo Alvarez by a 12 round unanimous decision in November 2015. That means that Cotto will be fighting for a world title off the back of a loss instead of a win and a near 2-year layoff. That’s quite odd, even in boxing, which is known for a lot of strange things happening in the sport. If this were the NFL, it would be like a team not having any games in the 2016 season, and then going straight to the Super Bowl in 2017 without having played anybody.
It wouldn’t happen in the NFL, because the fans would go crazy at seeing the preferential treatment given to a team. It’s unclear why the WBO has Cotto ranked No.1 with their organization. You would think that with Cotto having been out of the ring for 18 months, he would have been removed by the WBO’s rankings due to inactivity.
If a fighter hasn’t fought in a certain amount of time, it makes sense that they be removed from the general rankings by a sanctioning body. The WBO has not only kept Cotto in their top 15 rankings despite his activity, but they have him ranked No.1. That’s troubling and more than a little disappointing, because it’s not fair to the contenders in the 154lb division that have stayed busy and have been winning their fights.