Roach: ‘Rios Was a Punching Bag for Pacquiao and He Would Be One for Cotto Too’

    0
    959

    Cotto_Pacquiao_Roach_130809_001a-300x224Over the past few days it has been made public by Brandon Rios, who was last seen in the beginning of August in a very ugly fight against Argentine Diego Chaves, that he is interested in a fight with middleweight champion Miguel Cotto at a catch-weight of 152lbs, which seems to be a weight that Cotto can most likely still make since he is not a big fighter nor a natural middleweight.

    Cotto, who was expected to be due back by the end of this year, announced yesterday via twitter that he will return early 2015. The reason being is his trainer Freddie Roach will be tied down in the Phillipines in camp with stable mate Manny Pacquiao. Roach had reached out to Cotto about potentially making the trip with them to hold camp, but Cotto declined and instead has decided to take the year off. The most lucrative fight for Cotto is the obvious showdown with Canelo Alvarez, which was hoped by many to take place Spring or Summer of 2015. Though the fight can very much still happen, an easy fight for early January-March is most likely for Cotto.

    We had the chance to ask Roach about his opinion on the fight, should it ever happen. “Come’on! Lets do it,” said Roach, who not surprisingly also told us he feels the fight won’t go very far. When asked how long Roach replied, “A couple rounds, Brandon Rios was a punching bag for Manny Pacquiao.  He asked HBO, ‘Was I a punching bag?’ They should have told him the truth. He was a punching bag, lets face it, he was,” said Roach.

    Rios, who has struggled to make weight in the past, campaigns at 147lbs, but it looks like making 152 lbs would not be an issue for him. He is fresh off of a very questionable and disappointing DQ win over Argentine native Diego Chaves, and even though a fight with Cotto looks lucrative to some, there other fights out there that may be even more appealing, including a slug fest with another Roach student Ruslan Provodnikov. Still, many feel settling the score with Chaves should come first before anything else.