Miguel Cotto's career appeared to be coming to a close after a close loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr. in June of 2012 was followed by a decisive loss to Austin "No Doubt" Trout in December of the same year.
Cotto rebounded in October of 2013 though against Delvin Rodriguez, a top-10 contender in the division who was battered by the Puerto Rican for a bit more than two rounds before succumbing to the body work of the Puerto Rican. Cotto finished Rodriguez with a hook to the head, but a relentless body attack softened him up.
HBO analyst Roy Jones Jr., himself a former claimant to the pound-for-pound crown in his heyday, predicts Cotto can beat middleweight champion Sergio "Maravilla" Martinez by utilizing the same strategy.
"For Cotto, he has to do what Freddie [Roach] made him do in his last fight. He has to come out and be immediately aggressive - immediately get to his body, immediately get to his head, stay on top of him and not let him rest because he is getting older," Jones said.
If one were to ask Martinez, though, that won't matter.
"He should never forget that I'm the champion. He has a lot of demands but I'm the champion. I'll say it, I don't think that he'll last five rounds. I would like to fight Cotto, but he is showing signs that he doesn't want to (fight), by asking for complicated conditions and he does not respect boxing history. I'm ready to knock Cotto out in five or six rounds and I know I will. He can not resist me. Disrespecting me is a very unfortunate thing. He should not forget that I'm the champion," Martinez said.
Dating back to when the rumors of these two meeting surfaced, Martinez and his camp have expressed a deep-seated disdain for the Puerto Rican star. Recently Martinez expounded on his negative emotion.
"In 2008 it was February 12th, I came over to greet him at a television studio and he never even turned his head to acknowledge me. What he did to me he does with everyone," Martinez said.
"But I am angry about something else. Because when Cotto went to the studio of a Mexican television network he mistreated the people who were employed by that studio. From that moment, I wanted to punish him."
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