Mexico Gets the Win; Canelo Scores UD12 Victory Over Cotto

[The Sweet Science]

[img]http://75a9.http.cdn.softlayer.net/0075A9/thesweetscience/images/Cotto-Canelo-d2111.jpg[/img]

The boxing world has been hungering for a real-deal super fight, a pairing that would surpass the Super Bowl of over-hype, an antidote to the Ishtar was Mayweather-Pacquiao.
Hopes abounded that the Saturday night clash, between Miguel Cotto, an aging but resurgent Puerto Rican icon, and the cinnamon-topped Mexican hitter Canelo Alvarez, would fill the bill, make us forget that night when Mayweather and Pacquiao made oodles of cash, but not one fan to the sport.

And you know what, it satisfied.

More so if you are a fan of Canelo; after 12 rounds, the judges had it for the Mexican, whose power was superior and whose stamina was quite reasonable, by scores of 117-111, 119-109, 118-110.

Canelo snagged that many more fans when he spoke to Max Kellerman after, and said hell yes, me and Gennady Golovkin can fight right now.

Cotto left the ring and then refused to chat with Kellerman in his dressing room.

For those wondering, no, there is no rematch clause.

The Ring middleweight title was up for grabs, though the max weight was 155, or under.

Canelo, age 25, came in with a 44-1 mark, Cotto, age 35, was 40-4.

In the first, Cotto was moving ever so smartly. Canelo was a step behind.

In the second, we saw more movement from the Puerto Rican, and Canelo looked to close the distance. A sharp right from Cotto was the best land of the round.

In the third, Canelo got a bead on him. His right was on message. Slip, dip and rip right from Canelo was spot on.

In the fourth, they were trading jabs. Cotto was moving, and busy, and Canelo was having fun, dancing some. His right hand made Cotto blink hard.

In the fifth, Cotto ripped combos. A left upper from Canelo landed clean and this fight was tight. In the sixth, more shuffles from Canelo. The jab from the Mexican was effective. Lederman had him up 4-2. In the seventh, Cotto was more stationary, and looked to fight inside. Canelo was so confident, his right upper after a Cotto right fell short, was nasty. Was this the round of cruciality, when you knew Canelo would get that W?

In the eighth, Cotto wanted more space, and his work in the second half of the round, based on his legs, won it for him.

In the ninth, Cotto had the edge in power punches. Cotto's jab and movement worked for him, too, though. In the tenth, Cotto was busier early. He had good energy...Cotto complained he was hit on his back. He was dancing, then Cotto got stumbled late. In the 11th, Cotto was moving, maybe too much. He was looking less fresh. In the 12th, we got some action we were hoping for, rumbling. A cut formed on the Cotto left eye, and he looked in avoidant mode.

To the cards...

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[Radam G]

[img]http://75a9.http.cdn.softlayer.net/0075A9/thesweetscience/images/Cotto-Canelo-d2111.jpg[/img]

The boxing world has been hungering for a real-deal super fight, a pairing that would surpass the Super Bowl of over-hype, an antidote to the Ishtar was Mayweather-Pacquiao.
Hopes abounded that the Saturday night clash, between Miguel Cotto, an aging but resurgent Puerto Rican icon, and the cinnamon-topped Mexican hitter Canelo Alvarez, would fill the bill, make us forget that night when Mayweather and Pacquiao made oodles of cash, but not one fan to the sport.
And you know what, it satisfied.
More so if you are a fan of Canelo; after 12 rounds, the judges had it for the Mexican, whose power was superior and whose stamina was quite reasonable, by scores of 117-111, 119-109, 118-110.
The Ring middleweight title was up for grabs, though the max weight was 155, or under.
Canelo, age 25, came in with a 44-1 mark, Cotto, age 35, was 40-4.
In the first, Cotto was moving ever so smartly. Canelo was a step behind.
In the second, we saw more movement from the Puerto Rican, and Canelo looked to close the distance. A sharp right from Cotto was the best land of the round.
In the third, Canelo got a bead on him. His right was on message. Slip, dip and rip right from Canelo was spot on.
In the fourth, they were trading jabs. Cotto was moving, and busy, and Canelo was having fun, dancing some. His right hand made Cotto blink hard.
In the fifth, Cotto ripped combos. A left upper from Canelo landed clean and this fight was tight. In the sixth, more shuffles from Canelo. The jab from the Mexican was effective. Lederman had him up 4-2. In the seventh, Cotto was more stationary, and looked to fight inside. Canelo was so confident, his right upper after a Cotto right fell short was nasty.
In the eighth, Cotto wanted more space, and his work in the second half of the round, based on his legs, won it for him.
In the ninth, Cotto had the edge in power punches. Cotto's jab and movement worked for him, too, though. In the tenth, Cotto was busier early. He had good energy...Cotto complained he was hit on his back. He was dancing, then Cotto got stumbled late. In the 11th, Cotto was moving, maybe too much. He was looking less fresh. In the 12th, we got some action we were hoping for, rumbling. A cut formed on the Cotto left eye, and he looked in avoidant mode. To the cards...

I love your last paragraph about Cotto moving maybe too much. The only pug in the game that may move like a running, scary bytch and still win rounds is Money May. Holla!

[SouthPawFlo]

I did have Canelo as the winner but the scoring margin was waaaaaayyyyyyy off...

I don't think the judges were giving Cotto credit for his jab because it was pretty effective in the fight....


I think Freddie Roach shoulda pushed for Cotto to be more aggressive in rounds 9-12 because the fight was still in arms reach and Canelo was starting to slow a little....

Other than the RIGO nap session it was a good night of boxing

[Domenic]

I had Canelo winning in the 116-112 range. There were a lot of razor thin rounds. It was nice to see Canelo not shy away from a Golovkin fight in the Kellerman interview. He looked like a super middleweight in there, so the size argument just doesn't hold water. The Vargas comeback win over Muira is a FOTY candidate. Vargas nearly ended it in the first, then it see-sawed to Muira, and from there it was a nonstop war up until the incredible Vargas TKO. That rematch could and should easily headline an HBO show in the future (they both will need time to recover from that thing).

Rigondeaux was the only blight on the card. He averaged 7 punches a round against a guy with absolutely no hope. He has no business being on a PPV card at all. At best, it should've been the opener, which although it sets the show off on a negative note, would've been quickly forgotten with the other superior battles.

[StormCentre]

Roach (a nice guy whose well connected and friendly with a lot of writers and all, but probably one of the most overrated trainers around) is almost always lost (the antithesis of his pre-fight talk/claims) when things don't go well for him and his fighter in terms of their plans and strategy.

And, in that respect he's kind of like the police during an investigation that just focus on one person (strategy) of interest.

Then when they finally get to court (the ring) where the talking don't matter, if it's a good defence lawyer (fighter; especially one that's not contractually marginalized beforehand) that knows how to examine and also pull apart process (hype), they're often just shot to pieces.

Some of the judges scoring did seem a little biased for Canelo.

But still, even if you amend that to what it should have been, you;

A) Still have Canelo the winner.

B) An explanation as to why Roach/Cotto love catch-weights and their association has been successful.

C) And Cotto having no business at Middleweight.


WTF was Rigo doing?

Dude fought like his career, bank account, and promoter didn't need any rejuvenation; and against a guy he could have spectacularly/easily blasted out of there.

[oubobcat]

I did have Canelo as the winner but the scoring margin was waaaaaayyyyyyy off...

I don't think the judges were giving Cotto credit for his jab because it was pretty effective in the fight....


I think Freddie Roach shoulda pushed for Cotto to be more aggressive in rounds 9-12 because the fight was still in arms reach and Canelo was starting to slow a little....

Other than the RIGO nap session it was a good night of boxing

I actually thought the scoring was on the money. I had it 118-110. There were some close rounds in that but I thought Canelo's power carried those rounds. The two rounds I gave Cotto were 2 and 11.

Cotto's punches had nothing behind them for the most part. Canelo's, on the other hand, had thudding power and often landed clean. Those punches count more than some of the pity pat shots slapping punches Cotto landed. Now Cotto did sit down at times and did land some hard shots but to my eyes there were a lot of punches that were more the slapping variety that had little on them.

That said, enough media are saying it was relatively close and this will help drive a rematch. Personally, I don't see anything different the second time around and am not really interested but think we see it again next September after each win a showcase next spring.

[Domenic]

Good points by all. And a very close call OU on Muira. Even though he didn't pull it out, he looked like he was going to after round 1 (not sure what the cards were at the time of the stoppage, but I had Muira ahead). Not much you can do in that case except applaud both guys. And yes, Cotto's punches were more slapping and he never made Canelo blink. I thought the first 4 rounds were virtually a dead heat, then gradually Canelo gained the edge with his size and more effective punches. Like Storm said, Cotto really has no business at middleweight (unless the opponent is made to order).

A rematch is completely unnecessary. I truly, truly hope they do not bother with that. Cotto rebuffed a post-fight interview, so not sure what he's thinking, but like Kellerman said in the wrap up, he is still very relevant, if he wants to be, in the 147-150 range. But there's certainly no mandate for a rematch with Cotto. Let's move on to a Cinco de Mayo weekend Golovkin - Canelo fight (at 160, no catchweight).

[oubobcat]

Good points by all. And a very close call OU on Muira. Even though he didn't pull it out, he looked like he was going to after round 1 (not sure what the cards were at the time of the stoppage, but I had Muira ahead). Not much you can do in that case except applaud both guys. And yes, Cotto's punches were more slapping and he never made Canelo blink. I thought the first 4 rounds were virtually a dead heat, then gradually Canelo gained the edge with his size and more effective punches. Like Storm said, Cotto really has no business at middleweight (unless the opponent is made to order).

A rematch is completely unnecessary. I truly, truly hope they do not bother with that. Cotto rebuffed a post-fight interview, so not sure what he's thinking, but like Kellerman said in the wrap up, he is still very relevant, if he wants to be, in the 147-150 range. But there's certainly no mandate for a rematch with Cotto. Let's move on to a Cinco de Mayo weekend Golovkin - Canelo fight (at 160, no catchweight).

Miura-Vargas was one of the best fights seen in the last 10 years. I will say that I was surprised at how Vargas dug deep down to pull that out. Miura had been in tough fights before and I thought for sure by round 5 he had it. But Vargas showed that something special and pulled a Gatti like comeback. As a matter of fact, my first reaction after the fight was that we just saw something similar to Gatti-Rodriguez from 1996.

Miura was ahead on two cards at the time of the stoppage and the third was even. I did personally think Weeks should have allowed Miura a little more time as Vargas started to look like he was getting gased. That said, it was tough to criticize as I'd much rather see a fight stopped a little early than a little too late.

[King Beef]

Miura/Vargas definitely was the fight of the night
The scoring for Canelo/Cotto seemed off, I was leaning Canelo, but would not have been surprised if it went either way.

[StormCentre]

I'm not sure there will/should be a rematch.

Cotto/Roach - now they don't have the title - will not nearly be as successful with any catch-weight stipulation; such as that which just brought Canelo down to (was it) 155 for this fight?

And, without that Cotto will get absolutely slaughtered by Canelo.

There's easier (and well paid) work elsewhere.