BoxRec

Wow - what a fight. In any other year this would have been fight of the year and for me eclipsed many a fight of the year in the past.

Cotto showed a great fighting heart in there and showed a damn good chin. I know he got hurt badly a few times but he took many a shot. I thought he was a tad fortunate to survive the second - not many fights last 2 minutes of a complete pasting, but he got through and by fair means and FOUL he eventually got to Torres.

However, I think (as Jim Watt said) Torres is a new name of the devision and is right in the mix now. Outside of the champions, and possibly M'baye, Witter and Gatti, the devision is pretty poor and Torres can make a mark. I never looked up the result but after the two minute blitz in round 2 I thought Cotto was going to win. The reason why I thought this was because Torres punched himself out, and I was thinking "imagine if he had an extra month to prepare". I honestly believe that give Torres an extra month and we could very well have had a new champion.

I really hope the WBO watch this amazing contest and actually (in defeat) install Torres as the mandatory. I want to see this again, with Torres given a fair crack of the whip.

Just watched the Cotto fight.Top fight,Cotto showed a true fighters heart.Yeah maybe he should have clinched an held when in trouble but hes young and proud....haha....after that he may start to hold in future till his head clears.Interesting to see all cotos low blows goin in,wonder if we will hear the yanks banging on about him being a "dirty fighter" you know like they did with Hatton.If you can get away with it,the will,its pro boxing at a world level.
Big respect to Torres,showed plenty of heart himself.
What a fight Cotto v hatton,jesus id go to the States to see that!

markinmiddy wrote:Interesting to see all cotos low blows goin in,wonder if we will hear the yanks banging on about him being a "dirty fighter" you know like they did with Hatton.

Beat me to it.

Agreed thart both showed heart, especially Cotto in the 2nd. But torres really surprised me, the way he was willing to stand and trade with one of the best at 140lb.

Great fight

On that performance, Hatton would marmalise Cotto.

Gatti-Cotto would be a hell of a fight, I feel.

Yeah that was a scorcher. I wondered how much making the weight is weakening Cotto or if he underestimated his opponent or if he's getting a bit impatient at his progress which seems to have stalled.

Good for Torres. He's arrived and that loss did far more for him than another 26 ko's in Columbia. I really hope he can capitalise on this performance.
The fact that he'd only been past the 6th round once before (according to Boxrec) brought me to the conclusion that it was fitness & conditioning that got Cotto the win.

Is Torres really that heavy handed or is Cotto so weakened by weight making? That's 2 out of the last 3 where he has been wobbled by opponents who have never shown big power at that level. That's the question and i look forward to getting the answer


On another note - wasn't it odd that Cotto obviously had no trouble at all understanding English but wouldn't speak it?

Yes that was an excellent fight, really thought Cotto was going out of there.

Didn`t Torres look real relaxed in there, unfazed and as if he had everything in hand, he reminded me of Goya Vargas the night he stood there waiting for Hoko..he had a real air of control.

I think Cotto did excellent to fight has he did, because he fought to Torres strengths, and I don`t see many of the top guys getting through what he did.
I would give Cotto massive credit for pulling it back, what a fighting heart.

Was it Piper or Nelson who likened Torres to Julian Jackson? either way it was spot on..once in distance you really are in massive danger.

Torres can certainly come back, but who`d want to fight him?
He looked in excellent shape, I noticed how defined his leg muscles were..he had certainly done his road work...Cotto was just too good.
And I don`t see how Hatton would be favoured over Cotto on that showing ...Hatton isn`t a big one punch KO artist..he`s a wear them down pressure fighter..and as long as he`s there with Cotto he`s absorbing those nasty hooks.

I`d still favour Cotto above Hatton...but I`d favour Mayweather over Cotto...but then to confuse it even more I`d favour Hatton over Mayweather

Great heart and little brain showed by Cotto suits me fine if it leads to fights like that. I was impressed with Torres, quick, powerful and extremely entertaining. Hypothetically I'd love to see him in with Junior Witter.

Cottos defence is not looking as impregnable as it once was, but that just makes him even better to watch and he sproved his heart and chin beyond doubt. I'd love to see a little round-robin tournament between Cotto, Hatton and Mayweather (let me dream), it would begeneration defining IMO.

I'll be pissed off if Mayweather goes off doing his superman act taking on Winky or Judah when there are some mouth watering match-ups at Lightwelter.

Cotto-Torres has got to be a Fight of the year contender, I hope we get to see plenty more of Torres.

Chesney_Chambers wrote:Great heart and little brain showed by Cotto suits me fine if it leads to fights like that. I was impressed with Torres, quick, powerful and extremely entertaining. Hypothetically I'd love to see him in with Junior Witter.

Cottos defence is not looking as impregnable as it once was, but that just makes him even better to watch and he sproved his heart and chin beyond doubt. I'd love to see a little round-robin tournament between Cotto, Hatton and Mayweather (let me dream), it would begeneration defining IMO.

I'll be pissed off if Mayweather goes off doing his superman act taking on Winky or Judah when there are some mouth watering match-ups at Lightwelter.

Cotto-Torres has got to be a Fight of the year contender, I hope we get to see plenty more of Torres.

Its a contendor, but it really has to be Corrales vs Castillo 1.

before this fight, having seen Cotto-Abdulaev I thought Hatton would win.

Cotto can clearly be caught and hurt, but the real issue id the way he holds hos arms/hands up and forward; exposing his body. You can't do that against Hatton.


Still, Miguel is good, but can't rate him above five.

stujones wrote:

Chesney_Chambers wrote:Great heart and little brain showed by Cotto suits me fine if it leads to fights like that. I was impressed with Torres, quick, powerful and extremely entertaining. Hypothetically I'd love to see him in with Junior Witter.

Cottos defence is not looking as impregnable as it once was, but that just makes him even better to watch and he sproved his heart and chin beyond doubt. I'd love to see a little round-robin tournament between Cotto, Hatton and Mayweather (let me dream), it would begeneration defining IMO.

I'll be pissed off if Mayweather goes off doing his superman act taking on Winky or Judah when there are some mouth watering match-ups at Lightwelter.

Cotto-Torres has got to be a Fight of the year contender, I hope we get to see plenty more of Torres.

Its a contendor, but it really has to be Corrales vs Castillo 1.

Yeah agreed

Was expecting Torres to be rugged and explosive, and for Cotto to walk through some fire to score the KO, but never imagined him to take such a beating at points. He was getting really busted up during the 2nd round. Torres looked more polished than I'd envisaged so maybe that had something to do with it.

Saying that, Cotto looked really good when he started working the body and when he relaxed and started jabbing, but it reminded me of Arthur - Gomez the way he couldn't resist the temptation to trade... and, like Arthur, he paid the price.

That wasn't the only reason though - I've been saying it for a while now, but Cotto is _dead_ at the weight. His punch resistence is at a dangerously low level when he makes these 'defences'. Big decision coming up for Top Rank.

Excellent thrillier of a fight. It's funny with boxing, Wlad-Peter was the fight of the two that I was looking forward to, thinking we would just get to see Cotto beat someone up for a few rounds again but then it turns out completely the other way round and while Cotto-Torres was an absolute barnburner I found the Wlad fight pretty boring.

I would worry about Cotto's punch resistance if Iwere in his team, I know Torres is supposed to be a big puncher but he was grazing Cotto with shots and putting him on Queer Street, I don't think he's that big a puncher.

Cotto looks like a defeat waiting to happen in my opinion, if it is down to weight making then they should just move him up now, surely any advantage of being his size but fighting at Junior-Welter is now negated by the fact that he could be stopped at any given moment against a top opponent?

stujones wrote:after the two minute blitz in round 2 I thought Cotto was going to win. The reason why I thought this was because Torres punched himself out

For all the trouble Cotto seemed to be in during the fight I never thought he'd lose, he just looked too sturdy to me, which might sound daft.

Torres is a heck of a fighter though, SHIT loads better than the likes of Carlos Maussa. That left hook is dynamite. I hope they don't just chuck him in with Mayweather Jr though, they could really build him into something.

Thought Cotto looked very uncomfortable at the weight and, while his skills were pretty impressive, I think that any fighter who could put him under more constant pressure than Torres would have a good chance

I feel pretty confident of Hatton's chances of beating him after this performance and I suspect he may even stop him

Slapsie

I reckon Cotto's chin is good enough - the Colombian just looked a massive hitter: you could see from the first left hook he missed with, the leverage he was putting behind it had lights out, written all over it.

What a fantastic fighter: took it on short notice ( are you listening Jr Witter? ) and showed the guts and chin to be a can't miss future world champ. As long as they bring him along right that is.

Cotto showed the heart of a champion alright - but yes, looks tight at the weight. I think those bombs he took would've left most lightwelters staring up at the ring lights, Hatton included.

Great, great fight.

Torres' inexperience cost him the fight. If he'd just placed a few more punches carefully through Cotto's peekaboo guard, ie right uppercuts to get his head up, followed by a left hook, he could have won, but it's understandable – biggest fight in your life you've got the man hurt and he got over-eager and blew himself out.

Great fight though and Torres is a welcome addition to the ranks.

Time for Cotto to go up a weight though if he's struggling. He'll not be so lucky one of these days. Showed true grit though.

Cotto needs to go back to boxing.

He is trying to slug it out with these guys. I don't agree with what Nicky Piper was saying though re Cotto not havinga boxing brain. I think that's not true at all.

MightyWarrior wrote:I reckon Cotto's chin is good enough - the Colombian just looked a massive hitter: you could see from the first left hook he missed with, the leverage he was putting behind it had lights out, written all over it.

What a fantastic fighter: took it on short notice ( are you listening Jr Witter? ) and showed the guts and chin to be a can't miss future world champ. As long as they bring him along right that is.

Cotto showed the heart of a champion alright - but yes, looks tight at the weight. I think those bombs he took would've left most lightwelters staring up at the ring lights, Hatton included.

Great, great fight.

Good post, and by Kilburn above. Although I did think Cotto was going to be stopped/KO'd during that second round blitz.

I agree, Torres' ability to counter Cotto when on the ropes (when he hurt Cotto in first and on other times) was brilliant a mark of a terrific fighter to see openings like that under the pressure against that quality of fighter.

How old is Torres' I believe he can be a world champion but I do worry he will go back to oblivion. I say, lets have a rematch - give the guy some notice this time.