By Tom Hanson: I’m not sure if I’m the only one that noticed this or not, but I couldn’t help but see the close similarities of Miguel Cotto (32-1, 26 KOs) and former welterweight star Fernando Vargas earlier in his career. I’m not referring to the fat and bloated Vargas at the end of his boxing career when he was struggling badly to make weight for fights. I’m talking about when Vargas was at the top of his game, the young undefeated then 20-0 phenom that fought Felix Trinidad in December 2000. At the time, Vargas was just as good a fighter as Cotto, maybe even better since he had already proven himself with wins over Winky Wright, Ike Quartey, Raul Marquez, Ross Thompson and a young Yory Boy Campas.
In contrast, before losing in a crushing 10th stoppage to Margarito on July 26th, Cotto has struggled to defeat Shane Mosley, running in the last three rounds to eke out a win, and also had problems in defeating Zab Judah, DeMarcus Corley and Ricardo Torres. Vargas, for his part, had no problems beating all of his opponents up until his fight with Trinidad in 2000, and showed superb speed, boxing ability and power to go with his good size at 5’10”. If you were to want to put together a welterweight champion, Vargas would be the mold that you would be looking for. He could move, slug and had excellent hand speed. Indeed, in every facet of his game he was a superior fighter than Cotto has shown to be.
If this bout had taken place in 2000, before Fernando Vargas (26-4, 22 KOs) had been stopped by Felix Trinidad in a war, I’d easily pick Fernando to defeat tonight’s opponent Ricardo Mayorga (28-6-1, 23 KOs). However, the 29 year-old Vargas isn’t nearly the same fighter he was then, having lost much of his quickness along with stamina and youth. Though he’s not even 30, and relatively young in years, he’s like a fighter in his late 30s, ready for retirement. 