(Sports) Boxing: Canelo v Cotto - Canelo Crowned Champ In Tight And Tense Affair

Tonight pretty much went the way described in our pre-fight prediction piece just without the Canelo knockout as we pretty much saw (as we predicted) Cotto out box Canelo for the first six rounds until Cotto started to slow and Canelo was finding his range landing the cleaner and most powerful shots of the fight.

Cotto was in the fight for whole bout but a notable slow down and Alvarez's punching power was clearly taking its toll as power differential between the two was clear from outset and played a bigger role as the fight went on. Though, impressively, Cotto was riding most of the clean right hands and left hooks to the body Canelo was landing for most of the second half of the fight. Canelo's footwork was slightly better than it has been in past fights but what was most impressive was his head movement as he slipped a number of Cotto's attacks particularly as the fight wore on.

What happens next for Canelo going forward is just as interesting as anything that happened in the ring as Canelo will likely be ordered by the WBC to fight easily the most avoided man in the sport (maybe save Main Events' light-heavyweight boxer/puncher Sergei Kovalev) Gennady Golovkin, a man Cotto has avoided like the plague since he snatched the middleweight crown from a legless Sergio Martinez two years ago.

Canelo has already proven that he's willing to take on anybody and is likely to invite the intimidating challenge Golovkin provides no matter how much Oscar De La Hoya will advise him against doing so. If Canelo ends up squaring up with Golovkin it would be his toughest fight yet and should he do the improbable and beat Golovkin who is both the bigger puncher and better boxer, it would confirm him as the biggest star of the sport and almost certainly its biggest draw given the already strong Mexican following he has.

In sum, tonight's main event was a good one as power and youth came up trumps against skill and experience but in truth the huge subplot that hung over this fight is what made it truly interesting regarding who's going to square up with the hard hitting Kazakh and now we have our answer (possibly the one everyone wanted),  the super-fight of 2016 is almost going to be made. 

(Sports) Boxing:Prediction – Cotto v Canelo

In an era where “low risk/ high reward” has become the prevailing mantra among fighters at the highest level of the sport, this Saturday evening presents us with a clash where the philosophy of “low risk/ high reward” is put aside for at least an evening as Miguel Cotto and Saul “Canelo” Alvarez go toe to toe in a bout that is truly a 50/50 match up.

Tonight’s fight between the Mexican and Puerto Rican natives promises to be a classic slugfest full of twists and turns as both are come forward fighters and can take punishment.

However, it’s hard to see a scenario where the Puerto Rican legend and future hall of famer Cotto ends the bout with his hands raised. While Cotto is more experienced ( he’s 10 years older than Canelo) and is the better boxer at least in terms of skill and ring IQ, it’s hard to see the stubborn 35 year old either knocking out or out boxing the younger, stronger and bigger fighter in Canelo.

I can see Cotto out boxing Canelo for at least the first three to four rounds owing his superior footwork but I also see Canelo coming on strong in the later rounds and ending the fight as Canelo will almost certainly push the pace of the fight which means Cotto may tire in the face of relentless pressure.

While Cotto’s trainer Freddie Roach has solid grounds to accuse Canelo of laziness and claim that this will allow Cotto to box clever all night due to Canelo’s notably poor ring cutting skills, Cotto will slow down in the third and final quarter of the fight as while chasing and missing an opponent can prove to be an exhausting enterprise, being hunted all night by an opponent who’s younger, bigger, hits harder, and can eat your best shot is just as tiring as it is discouraging.

Another advantage Canelo has is that he actually has a longer reach than Cotto which means he won’t have to work as hard to close the distance given he can throw punches from a longer range and still land punches that can hurt Cotto.

There are plenty of variables that could prove my prediction wrong as Cotto is the better boxer with one of the best trainers in the world in Freddie Roach in corner and both have enough experience to come up with a winning strategy to exploit Canelo’s weaknesses (ring cutting, low work rate) and nullify his strengths (power, youth) to great effect.

However, while Cotto will almost definitely expose weaknesses in Canelo’s game, I don’t see the him doing it for twelve without taking lot of punishment which I fear will force the referee to stop the fight if Canelo hasn’t already.    

In sum, whatever happens, this Saturday evening is going to  be a great night of boxing as two of the best in the sport of boxing go toe to toe but we believe  the power and youth of Canelo will overcome the skill and experience of Cotto.        

(Sport) Prediction: Canelo v Cotto a dead cert for next year

Golden Boy Promotions founder and owner Oscar De La Hoya has publicly stated his intention to make Saul "Canelo" Alvarez's next fight a real box office smash with four weight champ Miguel Cotto and with Top Rank's Bob Arum looking for Cotto to take on anybody other than a risky dust up with the dangerous Gennady "triple G" Golovkin, the Canelo v Cotto is real viable possibility.

The fight makes sense on so many levels and there are very few, if any, obstacles in the way of the fight being made which in a sport world famous for denying fans the fights they want to see owing to the Game of Thrones like blood feuds between promoters and managers. With the cold war between Golden Boy and Top Rank thawing with the departure of Richard Schaefer, 2015 could reestablish Boxing as the world premier combat sport after years of the sport falling in decline in the face of its own politics as there are plenty of great fights to be made between fighters in both stables.

The fight could take place next may probably in line with the month's Cinco De Mayo celebrations. Both Alvarez and Cotto are Box office draws and have fighting styles that ensure a great fight and more importantly a great purse of all parties involved which in truth determines whether a fight gets made. However one party that won't be to pleased with the fight will be Golovkin who has become a victim of his own success.

People have a lot of opinions about boxing and thanks to how the sports is run they're mostly negative but one thing you can say about the sport that's predicated by what moves the dial and the sad fact is that while Golovkin is great to watch, the Kazakh doesn't. According to Bad Left Hook's Scott Christ, Golovkin's three round demolition of the usually durable former champion Daniel Geale fared poorly in PPV  numbers as "the fight did an average of 758,000 viewers on HBO, cutting Golovkin's audience nearly in half from his last HBO appearance in November 2013". Add to that Golovkin's spectacular but ultimately noncompetitive demolition jobs scare the living hell out of promoters who are risk averse by nature which ultimately means Golovkin is going to have work cut out getting in the ring with real competition. 

In sum, I'm no believer in astrology or that human fate being wrapped up in the stars and planets above but the somehow the stars are aligned and a Canelo v Cotto card is coming one way or the other.