By Sean Jones: Saul Canelo Alvarez took timeout from his vacation on Friday to give Cotto a farewell word of encouragement towards his last fight of his career against Sadam Ali, and his looming retirement after that.
(Photos Courtesy HBO/Ed Mulholland)
Canelo says he learned a lot from Cotto from their fight in November 2015, which some boxing fans felt that should have gone to the Puerto Rican fighter.
I had Cotto beating Canelo by 2 rounds. The way that Canelo fought, he didn’t do nearly enough to rate the win. Canelo came into the Cotto fight as the favorite, and the more popular guy. I figured that Cotto would have had to do something really special to get the decision on the night.
Cotto and his trainer Freddie Roach believe they won the fight. That’s one of the reasons why Cotto wanted a rematch with Canelo all this time. The Mexican star never showed any serious interest in fighting Cotto (41-5, 33 KOs) a second time. It’s too bad for Cotto, and definitely too bad for the boxing fans. Canelo’s win over Cotto was tainted, as it was in his win over Erislandy Lara and Austin Trout, as well as his recent 12 round draw against Gennady Golovkin. What can you say? Controversy seems to follow Canelo around. Oh well, at least he chose to wish Cotto a happy retirement.
“Personally, it was an honor to be in the ring with you,” said Canelo to Cotto. ”I learned a lot from that fight. It was an honor, and I wish you all the success in the world in your retirement. A strong hug from me and much success!”
Canelo didn’t show that he learned anything from the Cotto fight. If you look at how Cotto was able to get the better of Canelo by jabbing him, Gennady Golovkin did the same thing in their fight on September 16. Golovkin took Cotto’s blueprint and jabbed Canelo all night long in dominating him from round 4 to 12. They didn’t give Golovkin the win obviously, but he definitely got the better of Canelo. I scored the fight 9 rounds to 3 in favor or Golovkin. I had Canelo winning the first 3 rounds, and then getting shutout the rest of the way.
“Miguel Angel Cotto, I just wanted to wish you success in your fight,” said Canelo. “I know that it is the last fight of your extraordinary career. I think that you did a lot for the sport of boxing”
Canelo is showing class by giving Cotto some love as he departs from the game. It would be nice if Canelo finally let Golovkin know that he wants the rematch with him on May 5th so he can stop sitting and wondering whether the fight will take place. Now that would be a classy thing for Canelo to do, wouldn’t it?
As far as Cotto goes, he’s going to have to bring it tomorrow night, because Sadam Ali is going to be looking to make a name for himself when he gets inside the ring. Ali has everything to gain in that fight, and Cotto has everything to lose.
