Miguel Cotto
Miguel Ángel Cotto Vázquez (born October 29, 1980), best known as Miguel
Cotto, is a Puerto Rican professional boxer. He is the first and only
Puerto Rican to win world titles in four different weight classes, and is a
former WBC, lineal and The Ring magazine middleweight
champion. The Transnational Boxing Rankings Board
currently ranks him as the world's number one middleweight.
As an amateur, Cotto represented Puerto Rico in the lightweight
and light welterweight divisions at various
international events including the 1999 Pan American Games, the 2000 Summer Olympics and the 1998 Junior World
Championships, where he won a silver medal. He began his professional career in
2001, and on September 11, 2004, he defeated Kelson
Pinto for the WBO junior welterweight championship. He
defended the title successfully a total of six times, before vacating it when
he ascended to the welterweight division.
In his first welterweight fight, he defeated Carlos Quintana for the vacant WBA welterweight championship. Cotto
successfully defended this title against Oktay
Urkal, Zab
Judah, Shane Mosley and Alfonso
Gómez, before losing it to Antonio
Margarito. On February 21, 2009, Cotto defeated Michael Jennings to win the vacant WBO
welterweight championship. He defended the title against Joshua
Clottey before losing it to Manny
Pacquiao on November 14, 2009. On June 5, 2010, Cotto competed in his first
fight at light middleweight, defeating Yuri
Foreman for the WBA super welterweight championship, before losing it in
his biggest fight to date against Floyd Mayweather, Jr. on May 5, 2012. On June
7, 2014, Cotto defeated Sergio Martínez to capture the TBRB, WBC
and The Ring middleweight titles. In doing so, he became the first
Puerto Rican fighter in history to win a world title in four different weight
classes.
Cotto started out his career as a hard-hitting pressure fighter, but has evolved over
the years into a more refined boxer-puncher. Many former opponents
name Cotto as their hardest punching opponent, with Paulie
Malignaggi (whom Cotto fought at light welterweight) going as far as to
call Cotto's power "near superhuman". Cotto is considered to be one
of the greatest fighters of his generation and also to be one of the best
Puerto Rican boxers ever, among the likes of Félix
Trinidad, Wilfred Benitez, Hector
Camacho, Wilfredo Gomez, and Carlos
Ortiz.
Early years and amateur career
Cotto was born in Rhode Island, to Puerto Rican parents, and relocated
to Caguas, Puerto Rico with his family before he
was two.There are several figures linked to boxing in his family, including his late
father Miguel Cotto Sr., his brother José Miguel Cotto, his second cousin Abner
Cotto, and his uncle and former boxing trainer Evangelista Cotto. Cotto
began boxing as a child to help lose weight, not anticipating it to end up
being his career path. He was taken to the Bairoa Gym in Caguas.
There, he was able to develop into a top amateur fighter.The young Cotto participated in several international tournaments, these
include: The 1998 Junior World Championships
that took place in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he finished
in second place while competing in the Lightweight division.
His three victories here were by points, the results were: Andrey Kolevin of
Ukraine by points 15-3; Dana Laframboise of Canada by points 6-1, and Darius
Jasevicius representing Lithuania 9-5. His only loss was to Anton Solopov of
Russia by points with a score of 8-9. In 1999, Cotto competed in the Pan American Games that took place in Winnipeg,
Canada. He only fought once in a loss to Dana Laframboise of Canada by points
with a final score of 2-5. Following his participation in the Pan American
tournament, Cotto was part of the Boxing World Championships
in Houston,
Texas.
He lost his only fight by points to Robertas Nomeikas. In his final amateur tournament,
Cotto represented Puerto Rico as a Light Welterweight at 2000 Sydney Olympic
Games where he lost to Mahamadkadir Abdullayev of Uzbekistan by points.
Cotto decided to turn professional after the loss to Abdulaev, ending his
amateur career with a record of 125-23.
Professional career
Early in his career Cotto defeated former world title contender John Brown
by decision in the tenth round. He led the score through the entire fight and
scored a knockdown in the second round. The judges gave Cotto scores of 100-89
twice and 100-88.
In 2001, Cotto suffered a dangerous injury that threatened his boxing
career. As he was driving to the gymnasium at 5 a.m., he apparently fell asleep
and crashed, breaking his arm and requiring hospitalization.
On September 13, 2003, Cotto defeated Demetrio Ceballos by knockout in the
seventh round at Las Vegas. In a fight where Cotto
injured Ceballos with numerous combinations in the sixth round, switching between
the orthodox and southpaw stances. In the seventh round Cotto displayed an
aggressive style that led to the referee stopping the fight with 0:32 remaining
in the round. With this, he was ranked number one in his division by the World Boxing Association.
Cotto's first fight of 2004, was a fourth round knockout victory over the
former world title contender Victoriano
Sosa. This was after an eventful week prior to the fight, which included
Cotto having to wait four hours for his luggage to arrive (after a 2 a.m. local
time arrival) at McCarran International Airport in
Las Vegas, and almost being removed from the Mandalay
Bay Hotel, where the fight was held, by a security guard who thought he was
an unaccompanied minor.
On April 8, 2004, he defeated the former world title challenger, Lovemore
N'dou, by unanimous decision in Las Vegas.The first three rounds of the fight had a slow pace with neither of the boxers
establishing control of the fight.Cotto dominated the fourth and fifth rounds managing to land combinations on
N'dou's head.N'dou won the seventh and eighth rounds after landing more accurate hits than
Cotto. The last three rounds were even with both fighters establishing short
periods of control in the fight.
The judges gave Cotto scores of 117-111, 116-112 and 115-113.
Junior Welterweight
On September 11, 2004, Cotto faced Kelson
Pinto from Brazil,
for the vacant World Boxing Organization junior
welterweight title. This represented the third fight between them, with Pinto
being victorious in their two previous encounters, both of which took place
while they were still amateurs. The fight was televised by HBO from San Juan, Puerto
Rico. During this card Cotto utilized a defensive stance with his hands in
a high position instead of his usual aggressive orthodox stance.
Over the course of the fight Cotto scored three knockdowns and won the World
Boxing Organization Junior Welterweight Championship by knockout in the sixth
round.
On December 11, 2004, he successfully defended his title, beating former
world champion Randall Bailey by knockout in the sixth round, as
part of the Vitali Klitschko-Danny Williams undercard in Las Vegas.Cotto's performance was described as a result of hand speed and accuracy.During the fight Bailey received punches in his face that opened cuts over and
under both of his eyes.As a result of the cuts Bailey was examined by the ringside physician.
Following this Bailey expressed that he didn't want to continue and the referee
stopped the fight at 1:39 of the sixth round.
Eleven days later, on December 22, 2004 the Puerto Rican boxing commission
named Cotto as Puerto Rico's fighter of the year for 2004.Cotto's second title defense took place on February 26, 2005 in the Rubén Rodríguez in Bayamón, PuertoRico against Demarcus
Corley.
During the fight Cotto practiced a boxing style that was more aggressive than
usual, trading hits with Corley over the course of the first round.During the fight both boxers were deducted one point following illegal low
blows.Cotto scored three knockdowns before the fight was stopped by the referee at
2:45 of the fifth round following a combination by Miguel.Corley claimed that the referee stopped the fight prematurely stating that
"the ref just stopped the fight premature. If he wanted to stop the fight,
he could have stopped it when I had [Cotto] hurt."Just a few days after retaining the crown versus Corley, Cotto received a
personal blow, when his stablemate and friend, former 2004 Olympian Joseph
Serrano, was shot in the head upon leaving the Bairoa gym. Serrano survived
the shot, but was in critical but stable condition at a local hospital.
On June 11, 2005, Cotto faced the last man to beat him as an amateur, former
Olympic gold medalist Mohamed Abdulaev from Uzbekistan.
As amateurs, Abdulaev eliminated Cotto from the first round of the 2000 Sydney Olympics. This time they met as
professionals in New York City's Madison Square Garden. Before the beginning
of the fight Cotto received a positive ovation from the public.During the first round Miguel went on the offensive scoring hits on Abdullaev's
head and body while he was in a defensive stance.In the fourth round a left hook by Miguel hurt Abdullaev, who proceeded to
focus his hits on Cotto's body.
Abdullaev's offense was effective in the sixth and seventh rounds and as a
result of this Cotto assumed a defensive stance.Following the eighth round Abdullaev's eye was swollen to the point of being
almost entirely closed.In the ninth round following accurate punches by Cotto the fight's referee paused
the fight and asked the ringside doctor to examine Abdullaev's eye.After being examined by the doctor Abdullaev indicated to the referee that he
could not continue, this way Cotto retained the Welterweight division
championship.
Miguel's third championship defense took place on September 24, 2005 at Boardwalk
Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey, against Ricardo Torres of Colombia. In
the first round Cotto had an offensive advantage and scored a knockdown on
Torres. In the second round after trading hits Torres scored a knockdown on
Miguel.The last seconds of the round were evenly matched with both boxers finishing
the round injured. Cotto was apparently in better condition when the third
round began and was dominating the fight at that point. With two minutes
remaining in the round one of Cotto's punches landed in Torres' beltline.
Following this Torres was granted thirty seconds to recover by the referee.Cotto dominated the fourth round and Torres won the fifth. Cotto won and scored
a knockdown in the sixth round. At 1:24 of the seventh round a left hook by
Cotto knocked Torres out.
On March 4, 2006, Cotto defended his WBO Junior Welterweight title by
knocking out Gianluca Branco, who had to give up during the
eighth round of their bout due to a shoulder injury.Cotto dominated the fight as a result of jab combinations in a card that took
place in Bayamón, Puerto Rico.Cotto's next scheduled match was against the then-undefeated Paul
Malignaggi in a fight that took place on June 10, 2006 in Madison Square
Garden. Cotto opened a cut over Malignaggi's right eye in the first round, which,
according to Malignaggi, affected his performance over the course of the fight,
by stating "this was the first time in which I was cut, and the blood kept
going into my eye. And it bothered me the entire fight. I was not able to see
very well. Cotto's a great fighter, but I'm disappointed, as I wanted to be the
champion".
Cotto won the fight by unanimous decision with scores of 116-111 and 115-112.
Malignaggi suffered a fractured right orbital bone and his jaw was injured, he
was taken to Roosevelt Hospital after the fight's outcome was announced.
