Cotto vs. Trout: Age could be a factor for Miguel in this fight

By Boxing News - 10/10/2012 - Comments

By Dan Ambrose: About to turn 32 on October 29th, age could be something that is starting to rear it’s ugly head for Miguel Cotto (37-3, 30 KO’s) as he heads into his December 1st fight against WBA World junior middleweight champion Austin Trout (25-0, 14 KO’s) at the Madison Square Garden, in New York.

It seems like only yesterday that Cotto was a young fighter beating one guy after another. Time seems to have gone by quickly for Cotto, because here is now an old lion taking on one of the best fighters at 154, and in a position where he could be beaten once again. Cotto’s old promoter Bob Arum has to be given a lot of credit for building Cotto back up after feeding him to Manny Pacquiao in a catchweight fight in 2009 that favored Pacquiao.

Cotto should have refused the catchweight, but of course the WBO was poised to strip him of his title if he said no after they agreed with Top Rank to sanction the fight at 145 instead of 147. Cotto took a beating in that fight. But Arum was good enough to bring him back three easy fights against Yuri Foreman, Ricardo Mayorga and then a rematch against a badly beat up Antonio Margarito. However, once Cotto had to take on a live opponent, instead of one of the older and/or weaker guys that he’d been facing in his last three fights, Cotto was beaten soundly by Floyd Mayweather Jr. this past May.

Cotto is now about to fight another live body in 27-year-old Trout and I can’t see anything good coming of this for Cotto. Trout is too skilled, too tall, too young and too talented for Cotto to win this fight. I expect Cotto to still be a star after this fight is over, even if he gets knocked out. He’ll still be a major star and can get put back on a soft diet of easy opponents to bring himself back from this, but I don’t see him being able to compete with the likes of Pacquiao, Saul Alvarez, Vanes Martirosyan, Mayweather and Erislandy Lara.

If he’s smart, Cotto will just go into a nice year or two span where he takes on decent names but no one really dangerous like the aforementioned fighters. He could then find success while still making a lot of money in his fights. But if he goes ahead and follows up a loss to Trout by fighting someone like Canelo Alvarez, Cotto is going to take another beating and this could really cripple his career. That would be three losses in a row and I can’t see him continuing to fight at that point.



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