Saturday night live on HBO, Puerto Rican legend Miguel Cotto takes his final fight against former US Olympian Sadam Ali. At least he says it is his retirement bout, anyway. Unfortunately, Ali isn’t the strong opponent we’d all like to see Cotto go out with, nor is he likely the money opponent that the WBO titleholder would like to end his storied career in against\.
Miguel won his first belt way back in 2004, meaning he has been in the world title scene for an astonishing thirteen years now. He has won belts at junior welterweight, welterweight, junior middleweight, and middleweight, making him Puerto Rico’s only four division world titleholder. He holds wins over the likes of Paulie Malignaggi, Zab Judah, Shane Mosley, Antonio Margarito, Sergio Martinez, and many other really good fighters. The worst man he ever lost to was Austin Trout, an excellent fighter and a terrible stylistic matchup. The rest were to all time greats and to a likely cheat, but we don’t need to rehash all that again.
All this is to say Miguel Cotto is one of the greatest fighters of this generation, only behind the likes of Floyd Mayweather Jr and Manny Pacquiao in terms of success. After nearly two years outside the ring following his very closely contested loss to Mexican superstar Canelo Alvarez, Cotto still looked great this past August when he returned against Yoshihiro Kamegai too. Granted, the defensively liable Japanese brawler was made to order, but there was still no sign of slowing down from the 37 year old star.
29 year old Sadam Ali (25-1, 14 KOs) is likely a better fighter than Kamegai at this point, but he will still really have to show something above and beyond here to even stay in this fight temporarily. While Ali was once considered a real prospect to watch and he did look great in a 2014 step up fight against former fringe contender Luis Carlos Abregu, he was also completely dismantled and stopped in his 2016 title shot. Jessie Vargas is a pretty good fighter, yes, but if he is outclassing a man dramatically then it stands to reason that that same man is going to fair very poorly against a legend like Miguel Cotto. Ali was even finished that night despite Vargas being historically a light puncher.
Miguel Cotto is not a light puncher. This is not going to be a competitive fighter unless one man is not the same as he used to be and that seems very unlikely.
If this fight itself is not all that interesting, its fallout could be. Will Miguel Cotto really retire? Let me answer that question with a total cop out: Maybe? I actually do believe that the 37 year old wants to be done with the sport. As good as he has been at it, Cotto has never had the reputation of someone who loved the fight game. He seems very sincere in wanting this to be his last fight.
However, money talks. There could be a lot of it sitting on the table for the newly retired four division titleholder come the end 2018. Let’s say Canelo Alvarez scores a minor upset win in his rematch with Gennady Golovkin and that that happens in time for him to fight once more next year. Would Miguel Cotto turn down seven figures for a rematch that he has always wanted? He still contends he won their first fight. I think that would be too good of an offer to refuse, but it might not necessarily come either.
If I was a betting man on this issue, I’d say Miguel Cotto is probably more likely to fight again than stay retired. At the same time, I’d only put 60/40 odds on it though. Maybe his post-fight victory speech will shed some light on the issue Saturday night.
Underrated Mexican WBC super bantamweight titleholder Rey Vargas (30-0, 22 KOs) defends his belt against Colombia’s Oscar Negrete (17-0, 7 KOs) in the broadcast’s co-main event. Negrete has only really had one fight of US exposure when he headlined a Golden Boy on ESPN in June. While he did look good that night against late replacement Sergio Frias, this is just an absurd step up. Rey Vargas is probably the best super bantamweight in the world not named Guillermo Rigondeaux. His skill and size will represent something completely knew to Negrete. I suspect Vargas will roll to a dominant victory in defense of his title.
While I don’t think either fight will be competitive, you won’t want to miss this show if it really does turn out to be the last time we get to watch Miguel Cotto in action. HBO will have the call at 10:15 PM Eastern.
