It seems that all anyone can talk about in regards to Miguel Cotto these days is how different a fighter he is now than ever before, and as his fight with Saul “Canelo” Alvarez inches closer, those differences are being highlighted from multiple angles.
Cotto and Canelo will meet up this Saturday at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, Nevada on HBO PPV. Much of the talk has focused around Cotto’s resurgence since teaming up with Freddie Roach, the same trainer who only six years ago coached Manny Pacquiao to a 12th round TKO victory over Cotto.
It is easy to see that Roach has had a positive impact on Cotto. It could be that Roach was able to teach Cotto some new tricks that revitalized his old ones. Although, it could be that Roach gave Cotto the confidence and comfort to perform like he was always capable of doing under optimal circumstances. Regardless, Cotto is ready as he would have ever been against Canelo – a statement that is in complete contrast with everything we know about boxing and understand about sports in general.
Think about it for a second, the claim I mean, that a fighter can be better in the seasoned portion of his career as opposed to his prime. Well, that’s exactly what many fans and experts are claiming. But the most important voice claiming this is Miguel Cotto himself.
Thaboxingvoice’s Sean Zittel caught up with Cotto during fight week and spoke about some of the areas in which the Puerto Rican is more primed to defeat Canelo than he would’ve ever been in years past – a sentiment that is playing a huge role within the promotional lead-up.
“This fight can’t be decided by just one punch, we need to use the whole arsenal,” Cotto mentioned to Thaboxingvoice’s Zittel when the two were discussing a bit of strategy heading into the big fight.
Imagine that, a fighter who has admittedly fallen into traps where he was forced to depend on one to two aspects of his game and made to look like a one trick pony claiming that he will use an advanced array of punches. Not just that, but Cotto almost seems to spite the notion that he’ll need his jab to be his primary weapon or that his left hook is his best punch.
Perhaps Cotto knows that both statements are true, but he is content with using anything and confident enough to use everything.
As for Cotto’s assertions on how much better a fighter he is today versus his athletic prime, he is not afraid to leave the possibility open to the fact that he may have entered a new prime built on experience and confidence.
“If I had the same discipline that I have today before, things would be different in my career.”
These are certainly things that fighters in Cotto’s position have said before and it makes no sense to over analyze them with the big fight close enough that we can see for ourselves. Still, Cotto makes claims about different chapters in his career, and as Sean Zittel alluded to in the interview when he asked Cotto point blank about his ability now versus one of his first major showdowns with a Mexican fighter in Antonio Margarito, there is clearly a distinction in Cotto’s mind.
