By Dan Ambrose: A fight between Miguel Cotto (37-4, 30 KO’s) and Delvin Rodriguez (28-6-3, 16 KO’s) is being finalized by the two fighters for an October 5th clash at a still to be determined venue in Florida. Cotto has lost his last two fights to Austin Trout and Floyd Mayweather Jr., and he can’t afford to lose this fight if he wants to remain in the picture for more important fights.
Rodriguez, 33, hasn’t beaten a decent fighter since his win over Pawel Wolak in December of 2011. Rodriguez was easily beaten by Trout in a lopsided 12 round unanimous decision loss last year in June. Since then, Rodriguez has beaten George Tahdooahnippah and Freddy Hernandez both by knockouts.
AJ Galante, the manager for Delvin, said to the NYFightblog “We are finalizing the documents. It’s not done yet, but I’d be surprised if it’s not official by the weekend.”
This isn’t really a great fight in terms of Cotto fighting a major player at 154. Delvin Rodriguez has already been exposed by Trout, and many other fighters. This is more a tune-up/confidence building bout for Cotto. He can’t keep losing like he’s been if he wants to get the bigger fights. That’s where Rodriguez comes in.
He’s someone that Cotto, even at this stage in his career, should be able to beat without too many problems. If Cotto can’t, then it’s definitely time for him to retire because Rodriguez is more of a trial horse than anything else, and if Cotto can’t beat a guy like him, it’s time to retire.
Rodriguez gives Cotto an opponent that is recognizable to casual boxing fans in the U.S due to Rodriguez having been televised many, many times on ESPN2. He’s probably one of the most recognizable fighters that has been televised on that network, so it’s an advantage for Cotto to be fighting him for that reason, and also of course because he’s beatable if you’ve got a little bit of talent.
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