Miguel Cotto was one of the most dangerous fighters in his prime as the former world champion fought the very best.
From Cotto competing in a huge money fight with Floyd Mayweather, to getting the better of Shane Mosley, ‘Junito’ provided boxing fans with some great moments.
Retiring with a professional record of 41-6, only the very best were able to get the better of the Puerto Rican.
One of these losses came to one of the greatest Mexican boxers of all time, Canelo Alvarez. However, to set up the fight, Cotto had an impressive world title victory.
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Miguel Cotto dominated Daniel Geale in fourth-round finish
In June 2015, Cotto would look to defend his WBC World Middleweight title for the first time. Having claimed the title almost exactly a year earlier against Delvin Rodriguez, he took on Daniel Geale in his first defense.
Geale was a 31-3 Australian fighter, who was a year removed from a TKO loss to Gennadiy Golovkin. However, the ‘Real Deal’ was also a former world title holder.
Despite his accolades, Geale was not able to withstand the quality of Cotto. As the Puerto Rican led the dance in the opening three rounds, he landed significant shots on the challenger.
Punches to the midsection of Geala seemed to be adding up. However, in round three, a flash left hook to the head of the Australian would send Geala crashing down.
Although the challenger was able to recover, smothering pressure from Cotto would cause the fighter to shake ‘no’ when asked if he was okay to continue following a second knockdown.
In his post-fight interview, Cotto said that the performance made him feel like his old self despite being 34 years old on fight night.
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Miguel Cotto faced Canelo Alvarez in middleweight title fight
Following his win over Geala, Cotto was set up to face Canelo Alvarez in November 2015 in Las Vegas.
After a super welterweight loss to Mayweather, Alvarez made the move to middleweight, where he set his eyes on another world title.
However, Cotto was not able to bring his momentum into the huge fight with Alvarez. Despite having some success in a hearty performance, Alvarez was the sharper and more efficient fighter.
This would result in Alvarez winning the bout with a unanimous decision, claiming the WBC World Middleweight title.
Cotto would go on to fight just two more times in his career in 2017 before retiring. He would earn a victory over Yoshihiro Kamegai to win the WBO World Super Welterweight title before losing it to Sadam Ali.