The next mega-fight
After Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao there aren’t too many mega-fights out there in boxing. But once Miguel Cotto blasted out Australia’s Daniel Geale to defend the WBC middleweight title on Saturday night, he had a message for Mexican idol Saul Alvarez. “Let’s do it,” declared Cotto flush with the thrill of victory.
Both can punch, they fight at the same weight and while Floyd Mayweather’s performance against Manny Pacquiao was one for boxing purists, more technical style than knockout power, Cotto and “Canelo” Alvarez are quite the opposite. Both are aggressive, both like to go forward and that combination is guaranteed to be explosive. Plus it’s a genuinely hard fight to predict.
Cotto’s left hook
After defeats to Austin Trout and Floyd Mayweather in rapid succession, Miguel Cotto’s star seemed to be on the wane. But he linked up with Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach and in his recent run of fights has rediscovered his zest of old and notably his fabled left hook. He used that weapon to hurt Daniel Geale to the body, aimed lowed and then the left Cotto left hook sent the Australian flying beneath the bottom rope for the first knockdown. He wasn’t going to escape from that.
Watch HBO’s highlights here:
The catchweight
Much of the talk before the Cotto-Geale fight was the catchweight the Puerto Rican’s team had stipulated. The middleweight limit is 160lbs, a weight Cotto has never reached. This was agreed for 157lbs, tough for Geale, the bigger man, to make. That favoured Cotto and interestingly he scaled, below 154lbs, the light-middleweight limit. Clearly this is where Cotto is most comfortable and it also leaves him the broadest possible range options. Saul Alvarez has been fighting at just over light-middleweight and Floyd Mayweather has fought there before…
Coming soon
There is plenty of action coming up next weekend. Deontay Wilder, who won a portion of the heavyweight crown, the WBC title, at the start of this year, makes his first defence of the belt on June 13. The opponent, Eric Molina, is not up to much. Chris Arreola knocked him out in a round in 2012. Expect the power-punching Wilder to restart his knockout streak.
There’s interest in New York, where Nicholas Walters, a future rival for Vasyl Lomachenko defends his WBA featherweight title against Miguel Marriaga, plus the next Puerto Rican superstar, the talented Felix Verdejo fights Ivan Najera on that same bill also on June 13.
Meanwhile in England Lee Haskins will tilt for the recognition he craves, appearing on terrestrial television with Channel 5 when he fights Ryosuke Iwasa for an interim bantamweight title courtesy of the IBF.
MEET BOXING’S NEXT SUPERSTAR, SAUL ALVAREZ HERE
Photo: Tom Hogan/Hoganphotos/Roc Nation Sports/Miguel Cotto Promotions
