Cotto-Jennings: The Key To Victory For Michael

By Boxing News - 01/15/2009 - Comments

cotto6847981By Manuel Perez: A fighter is always at their weakest point following a bad knockout loss. That is never more true in the case of welterweight Miguel Cotto (32-1, 26 KOs), who was taken out in the 11th round last July in a brutal war with Antonio Margarito. The bout left Cotto a bloody and beaten mass of tissue, his nose broken, his left eye bleeding all over the place and his face reddened from the many huge shots he absorbed from the hard-punching Mexican fighter.

Instead of being smart and taking things easy for awhile, Cotto is hastily jumping back into the thick of things against one of the best boxers in the welterweight division, Michael Jennings (34-1, 16 KOs) from England. Mostly unknown to many American and Canadian boxing fans, Jennings has been successfully plying his craft in the UK, where he has dominated his opponents, winning 34 of 35 fights.

His only loss, a controversial 12-round split decision to Young Mutley in 2006, remains the only blemish on what would be a perfect record. Though Jennings doesn’t have a lot of knockouts on his record, he has very respectable power, more than enough to take out a fighter like Cotto if he can get him trouble.

Jennings’s style of fighting is similar to that of Mikkel Kessler and Lucian Bute, with Jennings having a jab, defense and movement almost identical to these guys. For those who see him as a big underdog in his fight with Cotto, they need to think again. Jennings will be a huge test for Cotto, easily better than any opponent that Cotto has fought other than Margarito and Shane Mosley.

Cotto will no doubt be trying to end this fight as quick as possible in order to impress fans and show that he’s back. This will present a perfect opportunity for Jennings, who already knows what Cotto will be setting out to do and will have a perfect strategy to foil Cotto’s plans.

All Jennings needs to do is stay on the move, jabbing constantly and changing directions to prevent Cotto from cornering him and landing big shots. As Cotto showed in his fights with Margarito and Oktay Urkal, he tends to tire out when forced to move a lot.

Certainly, he can do it for awhile but by the 9th and 10th rounds, Cotto is usually exhausted. Look at his fight with Mosley in November 2007. Cotto fought well in the first nine rounds but then gassed out and took punishment in the last three rounds.

Even if Cotto trains hard for this fight, he just isn’t made to move well for long. His body is too wide, his legs too short and he appears to struggle over the long haul when forced to move constantly. That’s where Jennings can beat him.

He needs to run Cotto all over the ring, turning the fight into a jabbing war. If all Cotto can do is jab, he’s at a huge disadvantage because he can’t end a fight until he’s able to land his power shots. Once Jennings gets Cotto into the deep water, say around the 10th, then Jennings needs to go for the kill and try to drown Cotto.

I would suggest that Jennings stop in his tracks by the 10th, and go right after Cotto, focusing on flurries. Shoot for uppercuts to the head because Cotto has no defense against them whether in a fresh or exhausted state. Luckily for Jennings, he has an excellent uppercut in his arsenal and he needs to let loose with these punches for the last three rounds of the fight. If he does this as planned, I can see him taking Cotto out in the 10th or 11th round. I doubt Cotto, if hit enough, will make it to the 12th.



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