By Wepeeler: So I’ve let the dust settle from what was a monumental Miguel Cotto (39-4, 32 KO’s) win over WBC middleweight champion Sergio Martinez (51-3-2, 28 KO’s) last Saturday night at Madison Square Garden, in New York. I had watched and read all the pre-fight hype, and I’ve followed all the post-fight action as well. There seems to be an overabundance of people claiming that Sergio knees were shot and that Cotto should have an asterisk next to his Middleweight championship. This is straight ridiculous.
First off, Sergio was the lineal middleweight champion. He beat the guy who beat the guy. And he BEAT guys down. He was often undersized and seemingly over-matched, but always came out victorious during a very impressive run that included Kelly Pavlik, Paul Williams, Sergey Dzinziruk, Dennis Barker, Matthew Macklin and big boy Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. He looked a bit rough in the Murray fight but look at the list of fighters he had just fought! Murray is a big strong ox, and Martinez still found a way to win. I say all this, because Martinez was the true lineal middleweight champ. Martinez vs. Gennady “GGG” Golovkin never happened, and although GGG owns part of the strap, he’s NOT the lineal middleweight champ.