Miguel Cotto (40-4, 33 KO’s) will represent the island nation of Puerto Rico and Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (45-1-1 32 KO’s) will represent his homeland of Mexico. The prize for the victor will be the WBC Middleweight Championship of the World, the Lineal Middleweight Championship, and hopefully, a future date against none other than Gennady “Triple G” Golovkin. While Golovkin holds a majority of the middleweight belts, the Lineal title is currently with Miguel Cotto.
Throughout his career, Miguel Cotto has been in the ring with the best boxing has to offer, including bouts with Manny Pacquiao, Floyd Mayweather Jr., and Sergio Martinez. In the latter, Cotto breathed new life in to his career by claiming the middleweight championship, a title once held by Puerto Rico’s most famous fighter, Tito Trinidad. The catalyst for the career rebound Cotto has experienced recently is his recent partnership with 7-time trainer of the year, Freddy Roach. With Roach, Cotto has returned to the body punching aggressive style he utilized earlier in his career. This change is also part of the reason for the excitement involving the fight, a big PPV contest that will guarantee fireworks.
On the other side of the ring Canelo Alvarez will look to take his career to new heights. Having lost his first big test against Floyd Mayweather Jr., Canelo will look to finally break in to the elite with a win on the 21st. Traditionally in boxing, new PPV stars must break out with a victory against another PPV superstar, and this will be Canelo’s second chance to emerge as boxing’s newest cash cow. The hard punching 25 year old has been on a quest to prove himself since his loss to Mayweather, taking challenges like Erislandy Lara and James Kirkland.
Looking at the match-up, Cotto seems to have the option of boxing or punching while Canelo must push the pace early and often. Alvarez could look to use a similar strategy to the last Mexican to beat Cotto, Antonio Margarito. Margarito placed non stop pressure on Cotto and tired him to the point of taking a knee. Now, however, Cotto can also look to land to the body and break Canelo down with hard thudding blows, something that hasn’t been done in Canelo’s entire career.
With previous installments of the Puerto Rico vs. Mexico rivalry in mind, (Trinidad- De la Hoya, Cotto- Margarito, Sanchez- Gomez), Cotto vs. Canelo is sure to be another vicious battle, following the theme of its predecessors, and should not be missed.
Written by Julian-Ray Fortaleza – Sports Editor of Philippine Asian News Today