It is not hard to look phenomenal against a retired senior citizen.

Excluding Cotto, 14 fighters have won major titles in 4 or more divisions.

4 are in the Hall of Fame (Hearns, Leonard, Duran, Whitaker)
4 are active, but are locks for the HoF upon eligibility (Mayweather, Pacquiao, RJJ, JMM)
3 are retired future Hall of Famers, but are not yet eligible (DLH, Arce, Erik Morales)
1 has a good chance of being in the HoF many years down the road (Donaire)
2 are not HoF fighters (Robert Guerrero, Leo Gomez)

Safe to say that Cotto is a first ballot Hall of Fame boxer unless you're willing to put him in with the likes of Robert Guerrero. His losses are to a known cheater (Margarito, who he avenged in their rematch), two of the best fighters in the sport today (Pacquiao, Mayweather), and an unfortunate bomb of a fight against Austin Trout.

Forget Cotto/Mayweather. Cotto/Canelo would be AWESOME -- that's if Canelo gets past Lara.

How come Cotto is able to fight GBP fighters while signed with TR?

Apparently Arum & Oscar are ending the cold war. A Cotto-Canelo fight would generate huge money for all parties involved.

I believe that Cotto is not signed with TR.

Also that JMM has won titles in three weight classes.

I don't count Cotto's first fight with Margarito as a loss. It's ridiculous to do so. He lost to Pacquiao & Mayweather in fairly competitive fights, obviously no disgrace, and Austin Trout. But who did he beat? Clottey & Mosley could have gone either way, Judah had lost his last two (including Baloldomir), and he beat "Sergio Martinez", not Sergio Martinez. He's a fine fighter but no ATG.

I hate that argument. Not his fault that the talent pool is weak.

Cotto v Canelo sooner than later..

yeah idk what everyone is talking about



cotto could fight whoever but afaic cotto canelo cinco de mayo seems like best fight. like -300 canelo. no way that doesnt get made cuz that will make so much money (i think?) . give both of them b fights until then but yah

i get it

but personally i thought he won both clottey and mosley and all his losses are to absolute world class fighters with the exception of trout. if trout could draw like 3 fans i would love to see that fight again but its never gonna happen nor should it frankly. no point

I think its a bit disengenous to do the "sergio martinez" thing consdiering he was a 2-1 underdog and while i would absolutely agree that martinez looked like **** v murray and arguably lost, COTTO beat the **** out of him. more important than winning to me was the fact that his power clearly translates to 157+


i will fully admit i have loved cotto for years so i'm slightly biased. i even thoguht he beat trout when i streamed it so i'm pretty damn bad person to ask since he clearly lost afaict

BRO i agree slightly but only because like the bar for superstar is so high. he can't beat floyd but then........what? i guess we will see him v canelo. this mother****er is a 147 fighter fighting up to 160 basically. heart of a champion. martinez sucked i agree. cotto exceeded all expectations. cotto maidana would be awesome but cotto prob can't get down to 147 anymore


i just wrote that and believe it but feels like boxing is in complete flux right now cuz money just lost 5 rounds to maidana who would win 5-10 rounds from about 9 fights in the division so it's tought to say. money is shook a d so is anyone else

You're assuming Canelo beats Lara and Cotto stays undefeated. Not a guarantee. Lara is no slouch.

I think GGG is going to have to move up to SMW to get a shot at the lineal title. The guy can't catch a break. Either his management is ****ty or every other boxer/promoter is a massive pussy.

Money's fights haven't been selling particularly high as of late as well. Barring Mayweather/Pacquiao happening, I don't think we'll ever see the day where the PPV buys record is in danger of being broken.

I've heard others say this too. Dan Rafael, that other guy from ESPN too. I don't get it. Cotto isn't promoted by Top Rank.

I know Top Rank was the first promoter listed last night, but that's probably because it was on HBO PPV and Dibella isn't that big, so I'm guessing they struck a deal with Cotto for a single fight.

I don't see why Cotto would have TR promote him vs Canelo, GBP can handle that one solo and it's just giving TR a freebie...

Stranger things have happened though.

Also, the cold war seems more about Al Haymon fighters and Arum fighters, than anything else. HBO cut off Haymon's fighters, Showtime cut off Arum's. I'm not sure I see Manny fighting on Showtime anytime soon, I doubt HBO is going to let that kind of thing happen.

When one of Haymon's top 10-20 guys fights on HBO and/or against a top TR fighter, and it's not just a Lomechenko Russell style one off situation, I think we'll be able to say the cold war is over. We need Garcia Provodnikov, Marquez Porter, Bradley Thurman type stuff.

Cinco de Mayo? Please no, way too long! Canelo wants to do another fight this year, then I'd imagine one more in the spring. That's the Lara fight, then 2 more, before May probably. Canelo seems ready to fight big names/tough fights as often as possible these days too, to build the PPV base.

A late fall or early winter fight vs Cotto would make sense. Just too much money to mess around with, Cotto is too hot, and if Canelo wins, he's fully come back from that Floyd loss (and proven he can beat a defensive counter puncher... and that's Lara's MO).

Winner can rematch Floyd at 154, interest should be there (imagine Canelo beating Lara and Cotto, or Cotto beating Canelo).

Well, a former 147 fighting at 155. He's a 154 fighter now in his own words anyways. And most guys move up over time. So he's fighting at a weight class 6lbs heavier than his stated preference.

It's not like Manny, who is like a 126 fighting at 147 (144 or so really).

I agree that he looked great, if he just picked up two wins in his comeback I wouldn't say that, but he looked great in those wins. However, a weak/over the hill Rodriguez and the worst Martinez I can remember seeing since some of his early years fights that I watched... that's not fighting a top 5 fighter in any division so far. No way last night's Sergio beats Geale, Murray, etc. Now, I think Cotto is better than Murray, possibly Geale, but do I think he's better than GGG, Quillin, Canelo, Floyd, Manny? No.

I think he's really good. I also think Tim Bradley is really good. Nobody gets excited over Bradley like this though Just sayin, ya'll got some special love for Cotto.

DLH Floyd PPV cost $55. It's not comparable. PPV costs like $70 now it seems.

Given the cost, Canelo Floyd PPV is probably the biggest of all time really.

I agree, we aren't likely to see it broken in the near future other than Floyd Manny, it is a pretty big record, and it should not surprise us if an all time record holds for awhile.

I think a Maidana rematch would break 1m buys given the surprising action of the first fight (I think it did like 800k something). A 15% type increase is probably expected there given Maidana's performance. And 1 million buys today is worth 10%+ more than 1 million buys earlier in Floyd's PPV career. The price of these PPVs is beating inflation.

oh man i got wasted last night after the fight

bad idea

can't stand by anything i may or may not have said in this thread. just now getting up is prob not a good look. still COTTO winning made me happier right when i woke up. great day


i do gotta say i think you might overrate quillin chicago. hard to say until he fights someone elite, u could be right, but i personally think he has not looked that great and frankly should have lost to rosado which is not a good look


anyway i saw it in the comments on blh but i can't help but repost cuz i think its absolutely true. if anyone in the entire boxing world has the balls to be smaller and move up and fight ggg, it's certainly miguel cotto (i personally think cotto would get absolutely smashed but thats not the point). pretty sure he fights one of may/pac/canelo every single time though

Yeah you are right about that. Lara could win for sure. I still think it was a crazy fight for canelo to take considering lara has zero name value for casual fan but I love that he did it.

edit- also just want to say it's just a shame how someone as talented as martinez could never make anything more than the 1.5 mil he made in this fight (i think..plus ppv profits of some sort i'm sure). just never got that name recognition in the U.S. despite being ultra elite for a few years. weird career. think he deserved a lot better but that's boxing. he is obviously completely done as far as i'm concerned. anyway cotto is only 32 i think. the crazy optimist in me wants to believe that he still has a chance to beat anyone despite margacheato derailing his career

has one more fight with hbo on his contract i think btw


no idea who he should fight. i have no interest in watching him v anyone. best thing for him might be to rematch JCC and make some money? really no clue but i imagine he retires after next fight 95% of the time. he should retire right now but won't happen


edit- someone on blh suggested bradley moving up and fighting cotto. that's certainly an interesting fight but i don't think it happens until after cotto fights canelo/may for a lot of money. cotto has also never fought marquez...

No reason for Cotto to go anywhere except elite.

Pretty sick, but I mean, the guy has superstar name recognition. Canelo, Floyd, Manny, anything else is pretty silly right now (Marquez, GGG, sure, but doubtful).

This is fair. Until last night, I had him behind GGG and Martinez (GGG as top at 160). Obviously Martinez is fading towards 10 or worse at this point lol, but Quillin is easily the least tested.

I think he'd beat Murray, Barker (if healthy), Sturm, Soliman, Macklin. I think Geale could give Quillin trouble and possibly beat him (I really think Geale's style wins fights).

But I don't see Cotto fighting that super aggro effective fight that would give Quillin trouble. He seems comfortable when people aren't coming at him hard, and I don't see anyone except Geale and GGG coming at Quillin hard enough to matter.

So I rate 160lbs something like this:

GGG, Quillin, Geale, Cotto, Murray. Not that I'm sold on Murray, but who do you feel is better to put in the 5th slot?

Btw, anyone notice two KDs from Cotto of Martinez weren't legal shots?

http://gfycat.com/MintyBitesizedEelelephant

Certainly great shots set them up, but the first KD was a combo of one behind the ear shot and a behind the head forearm. Should've been ruled illegal.

Second one was a push. He got right up.

Not that Sergio's knee/balance did him any favors, but those weren't legitimate knockdowns.

Nor should you be. We've had the luxury of seeing what Superstar and Elite fighters look like in Manny and Floyd. Cotto is a great fighter, but unless we're using "elite" in the way SE uses it (to mean "good") then he's only great.

Cotto v. Canelo would be must see TV and needs to happen pending Lara.

http://www.badlefthook.com/2014/6/9/...re-than-cottos

Good article on the Cotto hype.

That article says everything I've tried to say with 10 posts. That's why Scott Christ does this for a living while I post in a forum thread about it

Anthony Joshua to face Matt Skelton next. Should be his toughest test so far

Ruslan 139.8, Algieri 140.. let's, uh, get it on or whatever.

Also this weekend:
- The Andrade-Rose 'title fight'
- Glen 'Jersey Boy' Tapia makes his return to the ring following the ass-kicking he took from James Kirkland
- Jorge Arce and Hernan Marquez are both fighting in Mexico

It's a good thing I'm not a pro athlete, because I'm already looking ahead to next weekend. Gonna be a fun SHO card. Fun Fact: Looks likes Marcos' brother Fabian Maidana is making his debut in Carson, CA.

Yeah, in theory, Skelton has more pedigree than AJ's other opponents to date. But his Boxrec sure is ugly. Coming off two straight losses, 28-8 overall. And he looks like a fat old 45 year old.



Joshua is gonna do something terrible to this man, and yes I'll be watching, because AJ is the real deal. And he gives a good interview, as well. Future HW world champ and Wilder-Joshua in Fall 2016 is gonna be crazy.

Price blew away Skelton in 2 rounds a couple of years ago and Skelton was on a fast decline then ... let alone now.

Pointless fight tbh ...