Cotto vs. Martinez

By Dan Ambrose: The results from this months’ HBO pay-per-view fight between former WBC middleweight champion Sergio Martinez (51-3-2, 28 KO’s) and Miguel Cotto (39-4, 32 KO’s) are in and they’re not good. According to Dan Rafael, the Cotto-Martinez fight brought in just 350,000 PPV buys on HBO, well below the projected 475,000 buys that it was estimated to pull in.

The fight still made a profit, but it was a slim one and not the cash windfall that the promoters of the event Bob Arum and Lou Dibella thought it would be. Arum blames the poor PPV results on fan fatigue from having to purchase too many PPV events. Arum feels that the Cotto vs. Martinez fight was merely a good one, and not a great one designed for PPV. Dibella, for his part, blames the low PPV figures on fans having competing interests with horse racing event at the Belmont Stakes and Los Angeles Kings vs. New York Rangers Stanley Cup finals taking place.

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.

By Jay McIntyre: The greatness of an individual has often been attributed to that person being either in eventful circumstances or having an event-making personality. But this is an oversimplification because true greatness often requires an alignment of both.

William Shakespeare’s manipulative Roman character, Cassius, once remarked to his would-be conspirator that “the fault, dear Brutus, lies not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are men.” When looking at what fighters are capable of accomplishing in the ring, sometimes their greatest achievements arise from the perfect combination of preparation and opportunity. A fighter can only rise so high on talent and guidance alone.

(Photo credit: Naoki Fakuda) By Cameron Gillon: After beating the odds last Saturday night at MSG in New York against the WBC and Ring Magazine Middleweight champion Sergio Martinez (51-3-2, 28 KO’s), the question now is where does Miguel Cotto (39-4, 32 KO’s) go now and who should he fight in his next bout? I was one of the people that thought Sergio Martinez would emerge victorious last night but obviously I was wrong.

I thought Cotto wouldn’t have enough to beat Sergio, but how he proved me and the other Martinez fans wrong. He controlled the fight from the first punch landed, and no one would of expected him to put Martinez down three times in the 1st round. From then on Martinez was a sitting duck, his legs had gone from the first knockdown and Cotto knew that, and to Sergio Martinez’s credit, he stuck in there and put a hell of a effort up to win the fight despite being in a terrible state.

(Photo credit: Naoki Fakuda) By Daniel Hughes: The last trait of many a fighter to go is his ability to punch. It’s often been said that the punch resistance and the reflexes of a fighter can go overnight, especially in fighters that has come off a long layoff such as 39-year-old Sergio Martinez (51-3-2, 28 KO’s).

The credit has to be given to the 33-year-old Miguel Cotto (39-4, 32 KO’s) becoming the new WBC middleweight champion at Madison Square Garden in New York last Saturday night. He proved a lot of critics wrong and delighted his legions of fans in the process. A vintage Cotto took the fight to Martinez from the start, pressuring him constantly. Cotto, doing what he does so well, showed the ability to test the will and heart of his opponent. He did this to great effect against Martinez.

(Photo credit: Naoki Fakuda) By Jermill Pennington: How childish of me to take the opportunity to say I told you so. However, I never grew up so I’m fine with it. Last week I posted an article entitled “Sergio Martinez, who has he beaten” (http://www.boxingnews24.com/2014/05/sergio-martinez-who-has-he-beaten/) where I chronicled his history of opponents only to illustrate their similarities in styles in comparison to Frankenstein. Before I continue basking in the glory of me being right, and you being wrong, I will say that I predicted that Miguel Cotto (39-4, 32 KO’s) would wear down Martinez in 8, when in fact it was 9 so I was off.

How I came to that conclusion you ask? I looked at the last version of Martinez (51-3-2, 28 KO’s) I seen in action versus Martin Murray last year in April and in that fight knew that Sergio was fighting on whit. Once the physical factors you possessed to elevate you to that level diminish it is only a matter of time before the rug is pulled out from under you. We have recently seen this happen in the Paulie Malignaggi versus Shawn Porter fight.

By Bradley Dee: If you recall my earlier article here, I predicted that Miguel Cotto (39-4, 32 KO’s) had a great chance at beating WBC middleweight champion Sergio Martinez (51-3-2, 28 KO’s) in their fight last Saturday night at Madison Square Garden in New York.

http://www.boxingnews24.com/2014/02/why-cotto-can-beat-martinez/

As you can see in the comments section, I was also bashed, belittled, beaten on, etc, by many a reader for this prediction. Some even go as far as name calling.

Why did I predict this and why did it happen? Two reasons, and none of them had to do with the knees of Martinez. The first reason was Cotto’s trainer Freddie Roach, and the second reason was Cotto.

By Dan Ambrose: Boxing fans will have the opportunity to catch the replay of the Miguel Cotto – Sergio Martinez fight this Saturday night on June 14th. The replay is of last Saturday night’s HBO pay-per-view bout which saw Cotto destroy a game but physically limited 39-year-old Martinez (51-3-2, 28 KO’s) in 9 brutal rounds before Martinez’s trainer Pablo Sarmiento had the good sense to stop the fight in the opening seconds of the 10th.