Roach: Cotto-Canelo will take place in November

By Boxing News - 06/28/2015 - Comments

roach6By Dan Ambrose: WBC middleweight champion Miguel Cotto’s trainer Freddie Roach says that Cotto’s fight against former WBA/WBC junior middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (45-1-1, 32 KOs) will be taking place in November, according to ESPN.

The contracts for the fight haven’t been completed as of yet, but Roach is still confident that the remaining items that need to be agreed on will get done so that the fight can go ahead as planned in November. The fight could take place at catch-weight of 156 of 157 instead of 155, which was the original number that Cotto was talking about wanting to do the fight at.

Cotto’s WBC middleweight title will be on the line for the fight. The talked about city for the fight is Las Vegas, Nevada. Canelo wants it to be staged in Texas, where he has a large fan base, but Las Vegas appears to be where it’s heading. The other option was New York. Cotto has a large following there, but that city appears to have been ruled out.

“Not yet, I understand that some details missing, but the fact that it will be in November,” Roach said via ESPN as quoted by estoenlinea.oem.com.mx.

This is a fight where Cotto will get the chance to prove whether his career has truly been turned around or not with the help of Roach. We’ve heard Roach bragging that he’s rejuvenated Cotto’s career with the changes that he’s made with his fighting style.

Even Cotto believes that Roach is his savior. However, Cotto has yet to fight anyone that you can call a good fighter in their prime under Roach’s watch. Since he started being trained by Roach, Cotto has beaten Delvin Rodriguez, Sergio Martinez and Daniel Geale.

All three fighters appeared to be shot at the time that Cotto fought them, so the wins mean very little. We didn’t see Cotto fight guys like Gennady Golovkin, Peter Quillin, Andy Lee, or Daniel Jacobs. That doesn’t mean he can’t beat them, but we haven’t see Cotto fight them. Beating a one-legged, 40-year-old Sergio Martinez, and a past his prime Delvin Rodriguez and Daniel Geale means absolutely nothing.

“Canelo, I believe, will be favored to win,” says Max Kellerman of HBO. “I believe he’ll be correctly favored. He’s the younger, fresher fighter.”

Canelo will definitely be the favorite. Unless Cotto really has been rejuvenated by Roach, I expect Canelo to chop Cotto down in the same way that Antonio Margarito chopped him down. Cotto is bothered by fighters that pressure him.

We haven’t see Cotto get pressured in many years. He was out-boxed by Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Austin Trout in 2012. But the way to beat Cotto in a thorough manner is to attack him all night long and wear him down. Cotto seems to stress out when he’s backed up, and he’s not nearly the same fighter. The problem with the last three guys he’s faced is that they’ve weren’t smart enough to go after him the way Margarito did.

The winner of the Cotto-Canelo fight will have to make a decision about whether they want to give up their WBC middleweight title or defend it against the No.1 mandatory challenger Gennady Golovkin. I expect them to vacate immediately rather than get in the ring with Golovkin and risk taking a beating.



Comments are closed.