World Boxing Association welterweight champion Miguel Cotto (31-0, 25 KOs) remained unbeaten last night, albeit from a questionable decision, defeating former lightweight and welterweight champion Shane Mosley by unanimous decision last night at New York’s Madison Square Garden. The final judges’ scores were 115-113, 115-113 and 116-113. However, it appeared that the 35 year-old Mosley had beaten Cotto.
At worst, it could have been ruled a draw, as Mosley won most of the 2nd half of the fight, including the championship rounds in which he had Cotto, the champion, running from him. That’s not to say that Cotto didn’t have his moments, because he surely did, particularly in the early rounds of the fight when he was able to land his right hand and left hook to the body with great effectiveness.
Mosely, though, won three of the first six rounds on my scorecard, and four of the last six rounds, hurting Cotto in both the 9th and 10th rounds with right hands. After the sixth round, Mosely began using more movement, choosing to stay on the outside and attack sporatically with flurries.
It was quite effective, because Mosely was able to hit Cotto before he had time to react and set up his own return fire. By round nine, Cotto appeared to tire dramatically, much like he did against Oktay Urkal, which allowed Mosely to completely take over the fight. From that point on, it was pretty much all Mosely as Cotto was taking tremendous uppercuts. In that period, the roles appeared to have reversed, as Mosely appeared to be the champion and Cotto the challenger.
Cotto was bothered by Mosely’s speed all fight long, never being able to match him for speed in any of the exhanges. However, Cotto was clearly the harder puncher of the two, but after the mid-point of the fight, that had changed, as Cotto lost most of the zip off his punches.
Going into the 12th round, I had the fight even and I expected Cotto to reach back and pull out the stops, because he’d been badly lagging in the last four rounds. However, instead of coming out full bore, Cotto danced around the ring, avoiding Mosley at all costs. It sucked, not to put too find a point on it, especially with all the hype that surrounds Cotto. Here he was running from a fighter much older than him, as if he were afraid.
Which is why, I couldn’t give the fight to Cotto despite some of his early work in the first half of the fight. He looked bad. Based on this fight, i don’t like his chances against other top welterweights, such as Antonio Margarito or Paul Williams. Both would box his ears off and handily beat him. However, I don’t expect him to give them a chance, because he’s smart enough to know his own limitations I’m guessing.
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