I'd like to know what you guys think on the subject matter.
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By virtually any standard, Miguel Cotto has had an inordinately successful career. On the way to compiling a record of 33-1 (with 27 knockouts) he's captured alphabet titles in both the junior welterweight and welterweight divisions, beaten a full complement of championship caliber fighters and participated in one of the great slugfests of 2008. If Cotto were from a land not so rich in significant boxing history as Puerto Rico—Wales, perhaps, or Ukraine, or the Philippines—he would be hailed as one of his country's greatest modern-day warriors, maybe among the very best the nation produced. Unfortunately for him, Puerto Rico has spawned more Hall of Fame fighters per square mile than any other land, so Cotto is held to a very high historical standard.
Where does Cotto, seasoned veteran at 28-years-old, rank among the best Puerto Rican fighters of the last quarter century? Where does he rate among Felix Trinidad, Wilfredo Gomez, Edwin Rosario, Wilfred Benitez, Hector Camacho and Wilfredo Vazquez? "Right now he's not on the same level as Gomez, Trinidad or Benitez," says boxing writer Jorge Perez, who has been covering the sport for El Nuevo Dia, Puerto Rico's largest daily newspaper, for almost 30 years. "He's right there with Rosario, Vazquez and (early 1990s junior lightweight champion) John-John Molina. Cotto is still too young and has too many years left to put him up there with the top guys. He's not a three-division champion like those other guys. He's still a two-division champion. Right now he's at the level of Edwin Rosario, who is in the Hall of Fame."
It's no embarrassment to be the equal of Rosario, one of the great knockout punchers of the 1980s who won titles at lightweight and junior welterweight. "Chapo" could knock a man cold with a single right hand or left hook and was a superb technical boxer when he wanted to be. While Cotto is not the one-punch KO artist Rosario was, his ability to box or slug depending on the opponent approximates Rosario's versatility. Longtime broadcaster Barry Tompkins sees the parallels. "I did a lot of Rosario's fights and really loved him. He was a great fighter and a real pro and everyone loved him. And then he fought Julio Cesar Chavez, and he just got destroyed. Now he may be remembered more for the fight he lost than for all of the fights he won," Tompkins said. "Benitez was a terrific craftsman too, but went downhill after the loss to Ray Leonard. I'd rank Cotto over Camacho and Vazquez—I always thought Camacho was more sizzle than steak—but under Trinidad, Benitez, Rosario and Gomez. But he's on the cusp.
It's a cliché but great fights make great fighters and Cotto is on the cusp of all that. One more big fight could put him up there." Indeed, the legendary trio of Trinidad, Gomez, and Benitez each scored many, many wins over solid competition but defined their careers with very big victories over elite opponents. Trinidad beat Oscar De La Hoya (more or less) and Fernando Vargas. Gomez bested Carlos Zarate and Lupe Pintor. Benitez out-slicked Antonio Cervantes and Carlos Palomino. To date, Cotto's two very big fights came against Shane Mosley, whom he outpointed, and Antonio Margarito, who stopped Cotto in the 11th round. Cotto fans take some solace in the suspicion that Margarito's handwraps were loaded the night he beat Cotto, as they were before Mosley stopped Margarito last January.
But the loss remains. Despite the loss to Margarito and the plethora of Puerto Rican fighters, Cotto still gets plenty of love in his homeland. "For Puerto Ricans Cotto is the most important fighter since Felix Trinidad," Perez says. "Trinidad is the most popular Puerto Rican fighter ever except for Gomez, so Cotto had a very difficult task of following Trinidad. But he's doing a very good job of it. He has a very different personality but he's been able to capture the people's hearts the way Trinidad did."
"For Puerto Ricans, Cotto is the most important fighter since Felix Trinidad." —boxing writer Jorge Perez
Popularity is one thing. Building a substantive legacy is another. Palomino, who lost the WBC welterweight title to Benitez in 1979, tells HBO.com that Cotto might have done himself a disservice by leaving the junior welterweight division when he did. "He's a very good fighter but he's not great yet at this point. I think if he had stayed at 140 longer he could have built a longer legacy for himself. But I like him, I like his aggression. He'll do fine at welterweight. He's probably in the same category as Rosario or Gomez," Palomino says. "He's not on the same level as Benitez or Trinidad. He can get there. He's very strong and a very strong body puncher and I really like that he can box, too, like he did against Antonio Margarito." Clearly the consensus is that Cotto is a full level below the icons that are Trinidad, Gomez and Benitez—but he could still get there. Perez believes Cotto could reach that rarified status in a couple of ways. One would be to win a world title at 154 pounds.
That would make him a three-division champion. Another would be to beat Manny Pacquiao. "Cotto has a lot of boxing left in him still. If he won a title at 154 he would be in that top group," Perez says. "And if he fights Manny Pacquiao and beats him, it'll be like when Trinidad beat Oscar De La Hoya, or when Gomez beat Zarate. It will be a great achievement and make him a superstar. Then there will be no doubt." No Puerto Rican enters the ring alone. He goes in with the ghosts of all the Puerto Rican greats that came before him. You can be sure that when Cotto goes against Joshua Clottey in New York on June 13, he'll be thinking at some point or another about Trinidad, Gomez and Benitez. And he will fight, in part, to have his name called some day among theirs.
By: William Detloff
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In my opinion, Cotto is still a young fighter and has the potential to become more than Trinidad was but he is still not there just yet!! Give him a couple more years and Cotto could very well be the biggest boxer in PR history....but that is yet to be seen....that's what I think ~~Jonmicol
El boxeo a sido mi deporte favorito desde que teng uso de razon. Me acuerdo cuando chamaquito que mi familia se juntaba religiosamente para ver las peleas de Tito Trinidad y desde ese entonces e sido un fiel admirador y seguidor de lo que es el boxeo.
