Cotto-Geale Preview: Who Wins?

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    Miguel CottoThis weekend the center of the boxing world, will once again be centered in Brooklyn, NY as ROC Nation Sports and HBO Boxing present one of Puerto Rico’s all time great fighters, Miguel Cotto, puts his WBC Middleweight title on the line against Australia’s best in Daniel Geale, live from the Barclays Center.

    The fight is contracted to be fought at a 157-pound weight limit, and with that comes one of the biggest talking points of this fight, but we’ll get more into that situation later.

    The now 34-year-old, Miguel Cotto (39-4 with 32 KOs), has a wealth of accomplishments in the sport. He is the only Puerto Rican fighter to win titles in four different weight divisions, and as I said before, is the current WBC Middleweight Champion after his upset victory of Sergio Martinez, in his last fight, just a year ago in Madison Square Garden.

    His only four professional losses came to two of the greats in the sport, Floyd Mayweather, and Manny Pacquiao, as well as a bigger Austin Trout, and a controversial loss to Antonio Margarito.

    There isn’t much that Miguel Cotto has to prove to anyone in the sport at this point in his career. He has his fame, fortune, and legacy set from early in his career. However, one thing that Cotto has been criticized for is being a “diva”.

    He, like other top draws in the sport, has been known to take every advantage available to him, which includes money, location, and more highlighted than those, catch-weights. It’s something that he had to deal with against Manny Pacquiao, and now he does it against his opponents who are trying to get the Cotto fight payday.

    The also 34-year-old, Daniel Geale (31-3 with 16 KOs) is a solid top 10 middleweight fighter. He is a former WBA and IBF Middleweight Champion. He is a hard worker that is well respected within the boxing community. However, he has never been known as a hard puncher, and he has never been known as an elite fighter.

    As he tried to do, last July, against Gennady Golovkin, Geale will try to shock the world and pull off what would be a pretty significant upset, and not only will he have to deal with a top boxer, he will have to deal with being in enemy territory at a weight he hasn’t fought below since the beginning of 2007.

    This is a fight that I think would be better if both men were fighting at 160 pounds. With Geale having to come down so much, especially at the last second, there is a very good chance that he could be weight drained for the fight. Because of that, I think he will have a hard time holding off Cotto.

    If Cotto goes back to his normal style, which he has since he hired Freddie Roach to be in his corner, he will pound the body and slowly break down Geale to a unanimous decision win. It may not be pretty, but it will be effective, especially against a weight-drained fighter.

    Speaking of weight draining, probably the biggest controversy surrounding this fight is the weight limit.

    The fight is contracted to be fought at a 157-pound limit. However, the WBC has said they recognize the 160-pound normal Middleweight limit.

    At the seven-day weight check in, Geale was still at 167.5 pounds, which isn’t within 5% of the 157-pound limit. However, since WBC recognized 160, not 157, Geale is still within range of what he is supposed to be at.

    The biggest question will now be “If Daniel Geale weighs in between 158 and 160, what does Miguel Cotto do?” Is Cotto willing to disappoint what will likely be over 10k Puerto Rican fans just one week before the Puerto Rican Day Parade?

    This fight will probably not be as popular as the usual Cotto-NY fight, but what is said and done after this fight, will be the real main event.

    Will Cotto face Canelo Alvarez in September or October? Will he face Gennady Golovkin in October? If he faces Alvarez, what weight will the fight be at and at what location, Vegas or Texas (NY not likely)?

    Golovkin is the mandatory for Cotto’s next fight, so will he drop the belt and choose to face Alvarez, or will he pay a large amount of step aside money to GGG? There are so many questions that will be proposed after the fight that we just can’t wait until this one is over.

    One thing can stop all of these questions, a Geale upset win, but until we can see that, just enjoy the fight.