| Name | Miguel Cotto |
|---|
| Nationality | |
|---|
| Realname | Miguel Ángel Cotto Vázquez |
|---|
| Imagesize | 250px |
|---|
| Nickname | Junito |
|---|
| Weight | Light middleweight |
|---|
| Height | |
|---|
| Birth date | October 29, 1980 |
|---|
| Birth place | Caguas, Puerto Rico |
|---|
| Hometown | Caguas, Puerto Rico |
|---|
| Style | Orthodox |
|---|
| Total | 37 |
|---|
| Wins | 35 |
|---|
| Ko | 28 |
|---|
| Losses | 2 |
|---|
| Draws | 0 |
|---|
| No contests | 0 |
|---|
Miguel Ángel Cotto Vázquez (born October 29, 1980) is a
Puerto Rican professional boxer. As an amateur, Cotto represented Puerto Rico in the
lightweight and light welterweight divisions at various international events including the
1999 Pan American Games, the
2000 Summer Olympics and the 1998 Junior World Championships where he won a silver medal. Cotto began his professional career in 2001, and on September 11, 2004, he defeated Kelson Pinto for the WBO junior welterweight championship. He defended the title successfully a total of six times, before vacating it when he ascended to the
welterweight division.
On his first match on this division he defeated Carlos Quintana for the vacant WBA welterweight championship. Cotto successfully defended this title against Oktay Urkal, Zab Judah, Shane Mosley and Alfonso Gómez, before losing it to Antonio Margarito. On February 21, 2009, he defeated Michael Jennings to win the vacant WBO welterweight championship. Defending the title against Joshua Clottey before losing it to Manny Pacquiao on November 14, 2009. On June 5, 2010, Cotto competed in his first fight at the light middleweight division, defeating Yuri Foreman for the WBA super welterweight championship.
Personal life
Cotto was born in
Long Island,
New York and raised in
Caguas, Puerto Rico, with several figures linked to boxing in his family, including his late father Miguel Cotto Sr., his brother
José Miguel Cotto, his second cousin
Abner Cotto and his uncle and former boxing trainer Evangelista Cotto. He is married to Melissa Guzmán with whom he has two children, Alondra and Miguel Cotto III. After being eliminated from those games in the first classificatory round, Cotto decided to turn professional.
Cotto participated in several international tournaments, these include: The 1998 Junior World Championships that took place in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he finished in second place while competing in the Lightweight division. His three victories here were by points, the results were: Andrey Kolevin of Ukraine by points 15-3; Dana Laframboise of Canada by points 6-1, and Darius Jasevicius representing Lithuania 9-5. His only loss was to Anton Solopov of Russia by points with a score of 8-9. In 1999, Cotto competed in the Pan American Games that took place in Winnipeg, Canada. He only fought once in a loss to Dana Laframboise of Canada by points with a final score of 2-5. Following his participation in the Pan American tournament, Cotto was part of the Boxing World Championships in Houston, Texas. He lost his only fight by points to Robertas Nomeikas. In his final amateur tournament, Cotto represented Puerto Rico as a Light Welterweight at 2000 Sydney Olympic Games where he lost to Mahamadkadir Abdullayev of Uzbekistan by points.
Professional career
Early in his career Cotto defeated former world title contender John Brown by decision in the tenth round. He led the score through the entire fight and scored a knockdown in the second round. The judges gave Cotto scores of 100-89 twice and 100-88. Cotto dominated the fourth and fifth rounds managing to land combinations on N'dou's head. N'dou won the seventh and eighth rounds after landing more accurate hits than Cotto. The last three rounds were even with both fighters establishing short periods of control in the fight. The judges gave Cotto scores of 117-111, 116-112 and 115-113.
Junior Welterweight
On September 11, 2004, Cotto faced
Kelson Pinto from
Brazil, for the vacant
World Boxing Organization junior welterweight title. This represented the third fight between them, with Pinto being victorious in their two previous encounters, both of which took place while they were still amateurs.
The fight was televised by
HBO from San Juan,
Puerto Rico. During this card Cotto utilized a defensive stance with his hands in a high position instead of his usual aggressive orthodox stance. Over the course of the fight Cotto scored three knockdowns and won the World Boxing Organization Junior Welterweight Championship by knockout in the sixth round. During the fight Bailey received punches in his face that opened cuts over and under both of his eyes. As a result of the cuts Bailey was examined by the ringside physician. Following this Bailey expressed that he didn't want to continue and the referee stopped the fight at 1:39 of the sixth round. Eleven days later, on December 22, 2004 the Puerto Rican boxing commission named Cotto as Puerto Rico's fighter of the year for 2004. During the fight both boxers were deducted one point following illegal low blows. Cotto scored three knockdowns before the fight was stopped by the referee at 2:45 of the fifth round following a combination by Miguel. Corley claimed that the referee stopped the fight prematurely stating that "the ref just stopped the fight premature. If he wanted to stop the fight, he could have stopped it when I had [Cotto] hurt." Just a few days after retaining the crown versus Corley, Cotto received a personal blow, when his stablemate and friend, former 2004 Olympian
Joseph Serrano, was shot in the head upon leaving the Bairoa gym. Serrano survived the shot, but was in critical but stable condition at a local hospital.
On June 11, 2005, Cotto faced the last man to beat him as an amateur, former Olympic gold medalist Mohamed Abdulaev from Uzbekistan. As amateurs, Abdulaev eliminated Cotto from the first round of the 2000 Sydney Olympics. This time they met as professionals in New York City's Madison Square Garden. Before the beginning of the fight Cotto received a positive ovation from the public. In the fourth round a left hook by Miguel hurt Abdullaev, who proceeded to focus his hits on Cotto's body. Abdullaev's offense was effective in the sixth and seventh rounds and as a result of this Cotto assumed a defensive stance. Following the eighth round Abdullaev's eye was swollen to the point of being almost entirely closed. In the ninth round following accurate punches by Cotto the fight's referee paused the fight and asked the ringside doctor to examine Abdullaev's eye. After being examined by the doctor Abdullaev indicated to the referee that he could not continue, this way Cotto retained the Welterweight division championship.
Miguel's third championship defense took place on September 24, 2005 at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey, against Ricardo Torres of Colombia. In the second round after trading hits Torres scored a knockdown on Miguel. The last seconds of the round were evenly matched with both boxers finishing the round injured. Cotto was apparently in better condition when the third round began and was dominating the fight at that point. With two minutes remaining in the round one of Cotto's punches landed in Torres' beltline. Following this Torres was granted thirty seconds to recover by the referee. Cotto dominated the fourth round and Torres won the fifth. Cotto won and scored a knockdown in the sixth round. At 1:24 of the seventh round a left hook by Cotto knocked Torres out.
On March 4, 2006, Cotto defended his WBO Junior Welterweight title by knocking out Gianluca Branco, who had to give up during the eighth round of their bout due to a shoulder injury. Cotto dominated the fight as a result of jab combinations in a card that took place in Bayamón, Puerto Rico. which, according to Malignaggi, affected his performance over the course of the fight, by stating "this was the first time in which I was cut, and the blood kept going into my eye. And it bothered me the entire fight. I was not able to see very well. Cotto's a great fighter, but I'm disappointed, as I wanted to be the champion". Cotto won the fight by unanimous decision with scores of 116-111 and 115-112. Malignaggi suffered a fractured right orbital bone and his jaw was injured, he was taken to Roosevelt Hospital after the fight's outcome was announced.
Welterweight
{{ external media
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Miguel Cotto vs various fighters
here
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Cotto relinquished his title in late 2006 and announced his intention to move to the welterweight division to challenge
Carlos Quintana for the WBA's championship. The fight took place on December 2, 2006. Cotto defeated Quintana by technical knockout in the fifth round. Following a punch to the body, Quintana surrendered prior to the start of the sixth round and Cotto won the vacant World Boxing Association Welterweight Championship. Late in the fight Mosley displayed more aggression at one point becoming the aggressor. Cotto's performance was described as "a rare moment in sports when a sudden star rises from what is categorically termed as goodness, to the cusp of greatness." One round later, Cotto scored two knockdowns on Jennings, who was able to continue until the recess. In the fifth, Jennings was trapped against the ropes, which Cotto utilized to connect a right hook to score a third knockdown. Jennings incorporated, but the referee decided to stop the fight.
Pacquiao-Cotto also generated a live gate of $8,847,550 from an official crowd of 15,930.
After the Pacquiao fight, Cotto moved to the light middleweight division. On June 5, 2010, he fought against Israeli undefeated boxer Yuri Foreman at Yankee Stadium in New York. Bob Arum had said that, if Cotto wins, he would become a frontrunner to defend the WBA belt against Manny Pacquiao in November. Cotto stated that he would consider a return to the welterweight division, in case of an interesting fight.
Cotto ended up knocking Foreman down with a signature left hook to the body in the ninth round claiming the WBA light middleweight title, his fourth overall in three different weight divisions.
Professional boxing record
| style="text-align:center;" colspan="8"|
35 Wins (28 Knockouts),
2 Losses,
0 Draws
|-
| align="center" style="border-style: none none solid solid; background: #e3e3e3"|
Res.
| align="center" style="border-style: none none solid solid; background: #e3e3e3"|
Record
| align="center" style="border-style: none none solid solid; background: #e3e3e3"|
Opponent
| align="center" style="border-style: none none solid solid; background: #e3e3e3"|
Type
| align="center" style="border-style: none none solid solid; background: #e3e3e3"|
Rd., Time
| align="center" style="border-style: none none solid solid; background: #e3e3e3"|
Date
| align="center" style="border-style: none none solid solid; background: #e3e3e3"|
Location
| align="center" style="border-style: none none solid solid; background: #e3e3e3"|
Notes
|-align=center
|||||align=left|
Ricardo Mayorga
|||||
|align=left|
MGM Grand Garden Arena,
Las Vegas,
Nevada}}
|align=left|
|-align=center
|Win||35-2||align=left|
Yuri Foreman
|||||
|align=left|
Yankee Stadium,
Bronx,
New York}}
|align=left|
|-align=center
|Lost||34-2||align=left|
Manny Pacquiao
|||||
|align=left|
MGM Grand Garden Arena,
Las Vegas,
Nevada}}
|align=left|
|-align=center
|Win||34-1||align=left|
Joshua Clottey
|||||
|align=left|
Madison Square Garden,
Manhattan,
New York}}
|align=left|
|-align=center
|Win||33-1||align=left|
Michael Jennings
|||||
|align=left|
Madison Square Garden,
Manhattan,
New York}}
|align=left|
|-align=center
|Lost||32-1||align=left|
Antonio Margarito
|||||
|align=left|
MGM Grand Garden Arena,
Las Vegas,
Nevada}}
|align=left|
|-align=center
|Win||32-0||align=left|
Alfonso Gómez
|||||
|align=left|
Boardwalk Hall,
Atlantic City,
New Jersey}}
|align=left|
|-align=center
|Win||31-0||align=left|
Shane Mosley
|||||
|align=left|
Madison Square Garden,
Manhattan,
New York}}
|align=left|
|-align=center
|Win||30-0||align=left|
Zab Judah
|||||
|align=left|
Madison Square Garden,
Manhattan,
New York}}
|align=left|
|-align=center
|Win||29-0||align=left|
Oktay Urkal
|||||
|align=left|
Roberto Clemente Coliseum,
San Juan}}
|align=left|
|-align=center
|Win||28-0||align=left|
Carlos Quintana
|||||
|align=left|
Boardwalk Hall,
Atlantic City,
New Jersey}}
|align=left|
|-align=center
|Win||27-0||align=left|
Paul Malignaggi
|||||
|align=left|
Madison Square Garden,
Manhattan,
New York}}
|align=left|
|-align=center
|Win||26-0||align=left| Gianluca Branco
|||||
|align=left|
Coliseo Rubén Rodríguez,
Bayamón}}
|align=left|
|-align=center
|Win||25-0||align=left|
Ricardo Torres
|||||
|align=left|
Boardwalk Hall,
Atlantic City,
New Jersey}}
|align=left|
|-align=center
|Win||24-0||align=left|
Mohammad Abdullaev
|||||
|align=left|
Madison Square Garden,
Manhattan,
New York}}
|align=left|
|-align=center
|Win||23-0||align=left|
DeMarcus Corley
|||||
|align=left|
Coliseo Rubén Rodríguez,
Bayamón}}
|align=left|
|-align=center
|Win||22-0||align=left|
Randall Bailey
|||||
|align=left|
Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino,
Las Vegas,
Nevada}}
|align=left|
|-align=center
|Win||21-0||align=left|
Kelson Pinto
|||||
|align=left|
José Miguel Agrelot Coliseum,
Hato Rey,
San Juan}}
|align=left|
|-align=center
|Win||20-0||align=left|
Lovemore N'dou
|||||
|align=left|
MGM Grand Garden Arena,
Las Vegas,
Nevada}}
|align=left|
|-align=center
|Win||19-0||align=left|
Victoriano Sosa
|||||
|align=left|
MGM Grand Garden Arena,
Las Vegas,
Nevada}}
|align=left|
|-align=center
|Win||18-0||align=left|
Carlos Maussa
|||||
|align=left|
Coliseo Rubén Rodríguez,
Bayamón}}
|align=left|
|-align=center
|Win||17-0||align=left| Demetrio Ceballos
|||||
|align=left|
MGM Grand Garden Arena,
Las Vegas,
Nevada}}
|align=left|
|-align=center
|Win||16-0||align=left| Rocky Martinez
|||||
|align=left|
Coliseo Rubén Rodríguez,
Bayamón}}
|align=left|
|-align=center
|Win||15-0||align=left| Joel Perez
|||||
|align=left|
Selland Arena,
Fresno,
California}}
|align=left|
|-align=center
|Win||14-0||align=left|
Cesar Bazan
|||||
|align=left|
Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino,
Las Vegas,
Nevada}}
|align=left|
|-align=center
|Win||13-0||align=left| Ubaldo Hernandez
|||||
|align=left|
Coliseo Héctor Solá Bezares,
Caguas}}
|align=left|
|-align=center
|Win||12-0||align=left| John Brown
|||||
|align=left|
Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino,
Las Vegas,
Nevada}}
|align=left|
|-align=center
|Win||11-0||align=left| Carlos Alberto Ramirez
|||||
|align=left| Lucky Star Casino,
Concho,
Oklahoma}}
|align=left|
|-align=center
|Win||10-0||align=left| Justin Juuko
|||||
|align=left|
MGM Grand Garden Arena,
Las Vegas,
Nevada}}
|align=left|
|-align=center
|Win||9-0||align=left| Juan Angel Macias
|||||
|align=left|
Orleans Hotel & Casino,
Las Vegas,
Nevada}}
|align=left|
|-align=center
|Win||8-0||align=left| Sammy Sparkman
|||||
|align=left| Coliseo Guillermo Angulo,
Carolina}}
|align=left|
|-align=center
|Win||7-0||align=left| Joshua Smith
|||||
|align=left|
Coliseo Héctor Solá Bezares,
Caguas}}
|align=left|
|-align=center
|Win||6-0||align=left| Arturo Rodriguez
|||||
|align=left|
Staples Center,
Los Angeles,
California}}
|align=left|
|-align=center
|Win||5-0||align=left| Rudolfo Lunsford
|||||
|align=left| Pier 10 Arena,
San Juan}}
|align=left|
|-align=center
|Win||4-0||align=left| Martin Ramirez
|||||
|align=left|
San Juan}}
|align=left|
|-align=center
|Win||3-0||align=left| Waklimi Young
|||||
|align=left|
Hammerstein Ballroom,
New York,
New York}}
|align=left|
|-align=center
|Win||2-0||align=left| Jacob Godinez
|||||
|align=left| Convention Center,
Fort Worth,
Texas}}
|align=left|
|-align=center
|Win||1-0||align=left| Jason Doucet
|||||
|align=left|
Frank Erwin Center,
Austin,
Texas}}
|align=left|
Professional championships
|-
|-
|-
|-
See also
List of current world boxing champions
List of famous Puerto Ricans
Boxing at the 2000 Summer Olympics
Ring Magazine pound for pound top 10 rankings
List of Puerto Rican boxing world champions
The Battle (boxing)
Manny Pacquiao vs. Miguel Cotto
Miguel Cotto vs. Yuri Foreman
References
External links
Miguel Cotto Official Website
Category:1980 births
Category:Boxers at the 2000 Summer Olympics
Category:Junior-welterweights
Category:Living people
Category:Olympic boxers of Puerto Rico
Category:People from Caguas, Puerto Rico
Category:Puerto Rican boxers
Category:WBA Champions
Category:WBO Champions
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