By Chris Williams: You have to wonder why WBA junior middleweight champion Miguel Cotto (35-2, 28 Ko’s) opted to face 37-year-old Richard Mayorga (29-7-1, 23 KO’s) on March 12th next year rather than unbeaten number #5 ranked World Boxing Association contender Vanes Martirosyan (28-0, 17 KO’s). If I didn’t know better, I’d swear it looks like Cotto is ducking Martirosyan for what appears to be the much easier fight with the old shopworn Mayorga. Now why else would Cotto fight an old guy like Mayorga rather than someone that promises and exciting fight and who would have a great chance of beating him like Martirosyan.
Is Cotto afraid of Martirosyan? I don’t know but you have to wonder. Martirosyan, 6’0″, is a lot taller than the 5’7″ Cotto, and is also a lot younger at 24-years-old compared to the 30-year-old Cotto. Martirosyan also doesn’t have all the ring miles on him like Cotto. He hasn’t been through all the wars that Cotto has suffered in fights against hard punchers like Manny Pacquiao, Joshua Clottey, Antonio Margarito, Shane Mosley, Zab Judah, DeMarcus Corley, Randall Bailey and Ricardo Torres.
In each one of those fights, Cotto was beaten up and hurt in most of them. Those are all big punchers of different strengths, and Cotto took a lot of shots to the head in each one of them. Martirosyan, on the other hand, has mostly had easy fights during his short five year pro career. The closest thing that would come to Martirosyan having a hard fight was his 10 round decision over Kassim Ouma this year, but that was hardly a tough fight.
I don’t know what to think of Cotto facing Mayorga instead of Martirosyan. It seems pretty obvious that Martirosyan is the better fighter compared to Mayorga, who isn’t even ranked in the top 15. Cotto is facing a 2nd tier junior middleweight in Mayorga. If that’s not cherry picking I don’t what is.
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