The Big Debate: Miguel Angel Cotto vs. Mohamad Abdulaev.

This weekend, Miguel Cotto faces amateur nemesis Mohamad Abdulaev in a rematch of their Olympic bout in Sydney 2000. Here is why I think that the Uzbekistani can repeat that result.

Since very early in his pro career Cotto has been touted as the next big thing by his promoter, Top Rank. Bob Arum has claimed that he will be bigger and better than “Sugar” Ray Leonard and Oscar de la Hoya, and in his first twenty-three fights, Cotto

has pretty much looked the part, reeling off nineteen knockouts in his unbeaten start. While not possessing one punch knockout power (only his debut was a first round win!) Cotto does have extremely heavy hands and breaks opponents down with unerring accuracy, good ring smarts and a whole arsenal of well-placed punches. He received some criticism for his last bout against DeMarcus “Chop Chop” Corley, but I think that it speaks volumes for a twenty-four-year-old prospect when a fifth round stoppage of an ex-world champion (who had gone the distance with both Zab Judah and Floyd Mayweather recently) is called a bad outing. So far, it sounds like I am a fully paid up member of the Puerto Rican fighter’s fan club. I am! He is a great fighter and a credit to the sport and he will be around for many years to come. However, I believe that Abdulaev is to Cotto what Norton was to Ali, Barkley was to Hearns and Tunney was to Dempsey, a “Lesser light” that has the big stars’ number.

Don’t miss the rest of “The Big Debate,” as Shaun Rico LaWhorn offers up the counter-argument for a Cotto win.

Abdulaev won Gold in Sydney by beating Cotto 17-7 in the first tier, stopping Kelson Pinto in the second and Mohammed Allalou in the third, and then out-pointing Ricardo Williams (27-20) in the final. An impressive result when you consider that Cotto, Pinto and Williams are a combined 53-3 between them as professionals, and were all considered hot tickets going into the Olympic Games and their professional careers.

The German based Uzbeki is 17-1 as a professional, with only one loss, to Emmanuel Clottey. Abdulaev was decked in the tenth with a good shot, but stayed down while looking at his corner; apparently misunderstanding their instructions and the referee’s count! Apart from that, he has fought the usual opposition a prospect faces and is taking a huge step up in class facing the Top Rank favorite.

Cotto will be a great fighter and will go on to beat many, many names over the years, but Abdulaev is the one name that will always have a “W” over the Puerto Rican.

Shaun Rico LaWhorn: This weekend sees another chapter defined in the junior welterweight division, as two boxers who faced one another in the 2000 Olympics, enter the ring as professionals. If you are a hardcore boxing fan, you can summon eidetic imagery from their 2000 Olympic match and place Mohamad Abdulaev as a more knowledgeable, skilled and dominating fighter than Miguel Cotto. The amateur bout between the two was intense, entertaining and one important aspect that some people tend to misplace is that it was an Olympic bout. Like plants grow, boys turn into men, boxers turn into prizefighters. Miguel Cotto accepted the lesson from Mohamad Adbulaev and will be a new fighter this weekend.

The telescope of the boxing community is focused on the junior welterweights and with this being the case; Cotto’s name can be placed amongst the stars. He is not a major star, but his mentality focuses on becoming one. Cotto’s belief in his promotional team is admirable, he rarely calls out another boxer’s name and when asked the question of, “Who would you like to fight next,” he retorts, “I will fight whoever Top Rank wants me to fight.” That is pure maturity. Why worryabout the pressure of being a matchmaker and pleasing the public? A prizefighter should train, spar, train some more, work out and present the best-conditioned boxer, mentally and physically come fight time.

Cotto has superior defense and his stamina seems to improve with each round. He is not a fighter who will do fancy footwork or go for the first round knockout. Picture the growth span; in between the innocent Olympic days to the current professional days, this is his living, tough match-up days. Adbulaev is a decent fighter, a man with high potential, but he has not matured or approached the business of boxing as a career and I do not mean this in the sense of making large amounts of money. What I do mean is the sense of mentally accepting each match as a building block to establishing a unit of pure skills.

When presented with Kelson Pinto, a former opponent, who thought Cotto had that “amateur” mentality, he was surprised to see Cotto’s power and improved skills of proving a point. Perhaps Cotto looks at former opponents as bullies and the chance for revenge and respect is all the self-motivation, he needs. Yes, I am keen to the good boxer’s who loses to the average boxer and no matter how many rematches that are scheduled, they can never seem to regroup enough strength to beat this average boxer. However, I would not apply this logic to Cotto. The man has power, ambition, love for the sport of boxing and a need to improve his resume, especially in the wake of his last fight. This fight will be a boxing reunion titled, “2000 Olympics” and Cotto will step up and become the sole leader from that batch of talented fighters.

Jonny Townsend can be reached at taansend@yahoo.com

Shaun Rico LaWhorn can be reached at filmmaking_mentality@msn.com