By Manuel Perez: If Miguel Cotto (32-1, 26 KOs) gets by Michael Jennings (46-5, 39 KOs) this Saturday night at the Madison Square Garden, in New York, New York, the one fighter that Cotto probably won’t be facing is WBA welterweight champion Shane Mosley. In the recent conference call interview with Cotto and his promoter Bob Arum, both Cotto seemed to side step around questions about whether Cotto would be fighting Mosley if Shane defeats Jennings.
Arum, instead, gave an answer to a question about whether Cotto would be fighting Mosley by saying that Cotto might fight the day before the Puerto Rican parade in Madison Square Garden, and if that’s the case then Mosley wouldn’t be the best option economically for Cotto. Read: Cotto is likely to be matched up with a Puerto Rican fighter instead of the 37-year-old Mosley.
In taking a glance at the WBO welterweight top 15 fighters, there are two possible opponents – Carlos Quintana and Luis Collazo – of Puerto Rican descent that Cotto could be matched up. Quintana probably can be ruled out immediately, because Cotto breezed through Quintana two years ago in December 2006, taking him out in the 5th round.
It’s doubtful that it Quintana would be put back in the ring with Cotto given that result. Besides, Quintana was flattened in the 1st round two fights ago against Paul Williams in June 2008, and it would probably be far too early to put Quintana back in the ring with someone like Cotto.
Collazo (29-4, 14 KOs) is the much better choice, especially with his close 12-round decision loss to WBC welterweight champion Andre Berto in January. Collazo fought really well, giving Berto all he could handle through much of the early rounds and outworking him with hard combinations top the body and head. Collazo would likely be able to give a good showing for as long as the fight lasts.
He’s got a great chin and has only been stopped once before in his career, seven years ago in the 2nd round to a fighter by the name of Edwin Cassiani. Collazo has fought much better since then, beating a lot of good fighters, while losing to Ricky Hatton, Shane Mosley and Berto. The loss to Hatton, a close 12-round decision, was controversial with many fans feeling that Collazo had done enough to get the win. He even hurt Hatton in the 12th and had him backing up for the first time in the fight.
Aside from Collazo and Quintana, there’s Mexican Jesus Soto Karass, currently ranked #4 in the WBO. This might be a good fight except that Karass has fought mostly limited opposition up until now, no one good enough to assume that he would be able to compete with Cotto for long.
However, Karrass has a style similar to Antonio Margarito, so who knows? Maybe Karrass would be able to pressure Cotto enough to break him down and cause him to quit like he did against Margarito in July 2008.
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