How long does Cotto have?

[Taeth]

I love watching this guy, but I can't help but wonder with all his wars how much longer Cotto will be able to remain at the top of the sport, I mean at 27 he has already had a number of difficult, wearing fights.
Ricardo Torres
Demarcus Corley
Lovemore N'Dou
Muhammad Abdulaev(this was a pretty tough war)
Zab Judah
Shane Mosley

its not like this is a huge number, but it takes its tole on a fighter. I see hope in that Cotto now uses his jab so effectively that guys like Gomez, and I think even guys like Lovemore will no longer present a problem for Cotto because his jab can now dictate the pace of every fight he is in, especially against slower fighters. That being said he does have good defensive skills IMO, but because he is offensively oriented he is bound to get hit more than guys like RJJ and Mayweather.

Do you guys see him becoming more of a boxer, or does he have 3 or 4 more years left? Or 5-6? Or will he be like Hopkins and fight into his 40's even though Cotto gets hit a lot more than Hopkins used to.

[Pavlik]

Long enough to beat Margarito and PBF. With his ever improving style he does not need to engage in a slugfest to win, he can stop fighters in their tracks with just his jab i.e. the Mosley fight. If he has such power with his jab I can just imagine what damage he can inflict with his powerpunch.

[Althugz]

I wouldn't really consider some of those fights 'Wars'
Sure he got tagged for a few rounds against Judah but so have most fighters that have faced Judah. He handled Judah for the rest of the fight. Mosely, again we saw Cotto display some good boxing skills and although it was a competitive fight I feel the word, war, would be misplaced if we were describing that fight.
Cotto just needs to keep doing what he's doing. He's still got a lot of shelf-life and he'll last longer than somebody like a Hatton because he has shown better boxing skills. The first real war I imagine he'll possibly get into is against Antonio Margarito.

[:::PSL:::]

Cotto-Judah was one of the brutal fight I've seen.

[Althugz]

Cotto-Judah was one of the brutal fight I've seen.

Yeah for Judah maybe! I don't think it was a fight that took a lot out of Cotto. Sure if you went by his face then yeah he looked busted up but that was from one uppercut in the first round. No biggie. Cotto won that fight with relative ease.

[amat]

Well he's in his prime right now I think that's pretty obvious, seems dedicated it's impossible to time a guy's prime. I'm just glad he developed that jab so he doesn't just walk guys down now. That was his problem versus Torres and Corley, he was walking them down following them around the ring without punching and that's what was putting him in trouble. Now he hasn't had to take all that same punishment. In boxing you can lose your stuff and it's never going to come back, you've peaked. No telling when that is going to happen, no point in really speculating really. I don't know how much past wars factors into that.

[CutMeMick]

I love watching this guy, but I can't help but wonder with all his wars how much longer Cotto will be able to remain at the top of the sport, I mean at 27 he has already had a number of difficult, wearing fights.

There's a difference in difficult fights and a war.
I would have to ask how you determined which fight was a war.

Ricardo Torres

Def. a war I agree 100%

Demarcus Corley

Corely had his moments in the fight and Cotto was rocked but I would not consider it a war.

Lovemore N'Dou

I would not consider this a war. He went the distance with a tough opponent.

Muhammad Abdulaev(this was a pretty tough war)

Come on this fight a war?
I'm sorry but I think you and I have very different opinons on what a war is.

Zab Judah

I have no problem with calling this fight a war. Especially in the early rounds. The later rounds were all Cotto IMO and it was one sided.

Shane Mosley

Hardly a war man.... Very different fight for Cotto he showed another side to his boxing ability and fought well.

its not like this is a huge number, but it takes its tole on a fighter. I see hope in that Cotto now uses his jab so effectively that guys like Gomez, and I think even guys like Lovemore will no longer present a problem for Cotto because his jab can now dictate the pace of every fight he is in, especially against slower fighters. That being said he does have good defensive skills IMO, but because he is offensively oriented he is bound to get hit more than guys like RJJ and Mayweather.

Do you guys see him becoming more of a boxer, or does he have 3 or 4 more years left? Or 5-6? Or will he be like Hopkins and fight into his 40's even though Cotto gets hit a lot more than Hopkins used to.

I can def. see him around for 5-6 years still. All in all I think he's been in 1 war with Torres and 2 difficult fights where he got rocked vs. Corely & Zab. I really don't see him stopping soon or those things having a major impact.

[SweetPea]

It'll be much easier to answer this question two months from now.

[Dizaster]

I think Cotto has improved in his style and I think as the general meaning of this topic, his improvement on style might possibly effect how long he stays boxing for...
One thing is that some of his defence is leaky..... I think Cotto fought very well against Judah,,, and Judah definetely put on a show and would have beat lesser opponents that night... But Cotto was open to a lot of counters that night... Judah took advantage of a few and had he had a slightly harder punch and could have taken advantage of them more often.. Cotto would have felt it..

I do think he needs to improve on those small areas.... This is where he is going to have trouble against fighters like Floyd... He can take Floy'd punishment better than Ricky.. Dare I say it he might box floyd better than Ricky did... But still, to beat Floyd, you are going to need to punish him with a LOT of good blows.... And Cotto may have to take a lot of good Floyd blows himself to get all of his off.. He'll take them well, he'll make his count...
But any fighter that matched up against someone like Floyd,,, you can almost gaurantee any of your weakness's will be exposed if you don't get them up to scratch.

That being said, he's improving... And when he beats Margarito and gets a matchup with Floyd then it's something he's going to have to look at even more closely for improvement...

The guy is a fucking machine though, and every single thing he improves is another metal plate being welded on the outside of the tank......

[Taeth]

I love watching this guy, but I can't help but wonder with all his wars how much longer Cotto will be able to remain at the top of the sport, I mean at 27 he has already had a number of difficult, wearing fights.

There's a difference in difficult fights and a war.
I would have to ask how you determined which fight was a war.

Ricardo Torres

Def. a war I agree 100%


Corely had his moments in the fight and Cotto was rocked but I would not consider it a war.


I would not consider this a war. He went the distance with a tough opponent.


Come on this fight a war?
I'm sorry but I think you and I have very different opinons on what a war is.


I have no problem with calling this fight a war. Especially in the early rounds. The later rounds were all Cotto IMO and it was one sided.

Shane Mosley

Hardly a war man.... Very different fight for Cotto he showed another side to his boxing ability and fought well.

its not like this is a huge number, but it takes its tole on a fighter. I see hope in that Cotto now uses his jab so effectively that guys like Gomez, and I think even guys like Lovemore will no longer present a problem for Cotto because his jab can now dictate the pace of every fight he is in, especially against slower fighters. That being said he does have good defensive skills IMO, but because he is offensively oriented he is bound to get hit more than guys like RJJ and Mayweather.

Do you guys see him becoming more of a boxer, or does he have 3 or 4 more years left? Or 5-6? Or will he be like Hopkins and fight into his 40's even though Cotto gets hit a lot more than Hopkins used to.

I can def. see him around for 5-6 years still. All in all I think he's been in 1 war with Torres and 2 difficult fights where he got rocked vs. Corely & Zab. I really don't see him stopping soon or those things having a major impact.

I was overextending the word war... what I mean was tough fights which all of those fights were. Regardless he has been hit quite a few times especially in fights like the one with Mosley, and that isn't good for any fighter. I think his fight with Mosley was difficult, or at least became difficult later on. His fight with Lovemore N'Dou even though he was never hurt was definitely a difficult fight, same with against Abdulaev. People can make the arguement that some guys are like Holyfield or ALi and have many tough fights in them or like Meldrick Taylor or Gerald McClellan, and they don't have quite so many fights in them


He definitely is getting better, and I know you didn't say this but Cotto has a slim chance to beat Maywheater.

[Taeth]

I think Cotto has improved in his style and I think as the general meaning of this topic, his improvement on style might possibly effect how long he stays boxing for...
One thing is that some of his defence is leaky..... I think Cotto fought very well against Judah,,, and Judah definetely put on a show and would have beat lesser opponents that night... But Cotto was open to a lot of counters that night... Judah took advantage of a few and had he had a slightly harder punch and could have taken advantage of them more often.. Cotto would have felt it..

I do think he needs to improve on those small areas.... This is where he is going to have trouble against fighters like Floyd... He can take Floy'd punishment better than Ricky.. Dare I say it he might box floyd better than Ricky did... But still, to beat Floyd, you are going to need to punish him with a LOT of good blows.... And Cotto may have to take a lot of good Floyd blows himself to get all of his off.. He'll take them well, he'll make his count...
But any fighter that matched up against someone like Floyd,,, you can almost gaurantee any of your weakness's will be exposed if you don't get them up to scratch.

That being said, he's improving... And when he beats Margarito and gets a matchup with Floyd then it's something he's going to have to look at even more closely for improvement...

The guy is a fucking machine though, and every single thing he improves is another metal plate being welded on the outside of the tank......

He is a tank, but Floyd is a finely tuned piece of machinery himself. Both of them are so natural and so talented that its scary, and you can count the mistakes Floyd has done in the ring on one hand in the past 5 years. Floyd is virtually flawless in the ring, Roy made mistakes, Ali made mistakes, Leonard made mistakes, While Floyd isn't as physically talented as them, at least not at WW, he definitely has the other tools that more than make up for his lack of power and size.

[Spicoli]

Margarito will have a loud resounding opinion on this question.And The answer Imo.

[Dizaster]

I think Cotto has improved in his style and I think as the general meaning of this topic, his improvement on style might possibly effect how long he stays boxing for...
One thing is that some of his defence is leaky..... I think Cotto fought very well against Judah,,, and Judah definetely put on a show and would have beat lesser opponents that night... But Cotto was open to a lot of counters that night... Judah took advantage of a few and had he had a slightly harder punch and could have taken advantage of them more often.. Cotto would have felt it..

I do think he needs to improve on those small areas.... This is where he is going to have trouble against fighters like Floyd... He can take Floy'd punishment better than Ricky.. Dare I say it he might box floyd better than Ricky did... But still, to beat Floyd, you are going to need to punish him with a LOT of good blows.... And Cotto may have to take a lot of good Floyd blows himself to get all of his off.. He'll take them well, he'll make his count...
But any fighter that matched up against someone like Floyd,,, you can almost gaurantee any of your weakness's will be exposed if you don't get them up to scratch.

That being said, he's improving... And when he beats Margarito and gets a matchup with Floyd then it's something he's going to have to look at even more closely for improvement...

The guy is a fucking machine though, and every single thing he improves is another metal plate being welded on the outside of the tank......

He is a tank, but Floyd is a finely tuned piece of machinery himself. Both of them are so natural and so talented that its scary, and you can count the mistakes Floyd has done in the ring on one hand in the past 5 years. Floyd is virtually flawless in the ring, Roy made mistakes, Ali made mistakes, Leonard made mistakes, While Floyd isn't as physically talented as them, at least not at WW, he definitely has the other tools that more than make up for his lack of power and size.

Exactly man.... I can't picture for a second Cotto just openly tearing up Mayweather without the most resistance he will ever face inside that ring for probably his entire career... If Cotto beats Mayweather (hopefully via KO), it could make it one of the great fights in recent boxing history.. Certainly as far as huge moments in boxing goes, Cotto KO'ing Mayweather would almost top the lot for me, as a fan....
But for the very reason that I know how good Floyd is.. and like you said, the word Flawless isn't exhagurating his boxing skills at all..
He may have weakness's, but it'll take one hell of a talented, skilled & tough fighter to exploit them to the point of beating Floyd... And it's hard to see it happening against anyone.. Even Cotto..

But right now, i'm am just absolutely dieing to see these 2 guys face to face...

[HattonTheHammer]

torres was the only cotto fight where i genuinely thought he was being out worked and had the potential to be KO`d if he wasnt able to get back to working behind the life jab.

Corley hurt him on several occasions though never truly capitalised, quintana also got in with some stingers early on though never followed it up.

Apart from that though i cant remember ever seeing cotto in danger of being KO`d. Mosley fought too much of a strategic fight, the judah fight however good to watch became very one sided after about 4-5 when zab was no longer able to connect with that straight left and uppercuts.

Id suggest cotto`s style makes him viable to carry on into his mid 30s and if the man really wants to cement a legacy on the sport im guessing he`ll fight at least another 6-8 times in his career!!

[Macho]

torres was the only cotto fight where i genuinely thought he was being out worked and had the potential to be KO`d if he wasnt able to get back to working behind the life jab.

Corley hurt him on several occasions though never truly capitalised, quintana also got in with some stingers early on though never followed it up.

Apart from that though i cant remember ever seeing cotto in danger of being KO`d. Mosley fought too much of a strategic fight, the judah fight however good to watch became very one sided after about 4-5 when zab was no longer able to connect with that straight left and uppercuts.

Id suggest cotto`s style makes him viable to carry on into his mid 30s and if the man really wants to cement a legacy on the sport im guessing he`ll fight at least another 6-8 times in his career!!

I agree , hattonthehammer , also i think that he when get the fight with Floyd , he can make 2-3 fights in JMW 154 , his heigh isnt too enough , but IMO he can make it and then when get his 30-31 he can retire and enjoy everything that he mader in boxing ..........