Roach’s attempts at rejuvenating Cotto to beat Sergio Martinez are doomed for failure

By Boxing News - 05/25/2014 - Comments

roach013By Chris Williams: Trainer Freddie Roach thinks he’s taken former three division world champion Miguel Cotto (38-4, 31 KO’s) in reverse mode in finding Ponce de Leon’s fountain of youth for Cotto to drink from so that it can restore his waning youth for important fight against WBC middleweight champion Sergio Martinez (51-2-2, 28 KO’s) in less than 2 weeks from now on June 7th, but I have a feeling that Cotto hasn’t been restored to his once youthful self.

I believe that Roach is heading Cotto down the path of bitter defeat when he enters the ring against the tough transplanted Argentinian fighter at Madison Square Garden in New York.

At 33, Cotto could use some of the restorative waters of the fountain of youth to bring back the form that he had before his first fight against Miguel Cotto in 2008, but I don’t think the fountain of youth exists. Granted, Roach has done a good job of getting Cotto to believe that he’s like new again by telling him how he’s so much stronger now that he’s using his left hook a little bit more, but in watching Cotto’s fights before Roach arrived to take over his trainer a year ago, Cotto looks totally identical to what he was before.

The only difference I could see is that he was put in with a soft touch in his last fight against Delvin Rodriguez instead of someone really good that had world class talent and the ability to do a job on him like Sergio Martinez or Saul “Canelo” Alvarez.

Roach says “We’re [meaning Cotto] are going to be much stronger on the inside, much more physical on the inside than he is, and we’re going to push him around.”

I don’t fault Roach for wanting to build up Cotto’s confidence, but he’s going to need more than confidence with him when he goes out there to fight Sergio Martinez on June 7th. If all Cotto has is the confidence that he’s picked up from what Roach has been telling him, I think he’s going to be in for a world of hurt when Sergio starts picking him apart with jabs, straight left hands and right hooks.



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