Miguel Cotto may have fought Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao in their primes, but his June 7 bout with Sergio Martinez could prove to be the most difficult of his career. He's gunning for his fourth title in four weight classes, which would make him the first Puerto Rican to achieve that feat.
He believes new trainer Freddie Roach is the key to making it happen.
Cotto's never campaigned at middleweight before, but he looked to be in vintage, powerful form in his last fight, a demolition of Delvin Rodriguez. It was his first fight with Roach in his corner, and a beast looked awakened.
"Everybody knows how important this fight is to me. I'm going to do my best to win, and I have no doubt that I will," Cotto said. "If [Martinez] still has injuries, then that's his problem. I have confidence in Freddie. I'm working with Freddie in the gym on doing things in this fight."
Roach believes in his game plan as well, and lamented Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.'s insistence on deviating from it when they squared off.
"I had the game plan to beat him once before but my guy Chavez just didn't want to listen. He almost got him at the end but he just waited a little too long. ... I love this fight. I have the game plan for this fight and me and Cotto have talked about it."
Cotto was also asked about another upcoming fight-Mayweather vs. Marcos Maidana. He gave an answer that almost seemed designed to tweak Sergio, who has been very inflammatory throughout the promotion. Martinez had previously said his countryman Maidana has all the tools to upset the pound-for-pound king.
"That's going to be a shutout for Mayweather," Cotto said. "To me, that's not an interesting fight. It's going to be an easy fight for Mayweather."
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