Pete’s Ponderings: Cotto VS Clottey

What’s not to like about Miguel Cotto?

 

When discussions came about on whom Cotto’s opponent would be for his annual pre Puerto Rican Day Parade fight at Madison Square Garden this June, the names that were in the running were as follows: Andre Berto, Kermit Cintron and Joshua Clottey.

 

Upon hearing of these potential opponents, I believed that Josh Clottey was the most dangerous of the bunch. For that reason, many fighters wouldn’t want to fight him.

 

Not Cotto. It appears that June 13^th he’ll meet Clottey at MSG in a fight televised on HBO.

 

He’s never ducked anyone. Just look at his record and you’ll see he’s fought 10 men who have won world titles in their careers. In chronological order: Carlos Maussa, Lovemore N’Dou, Randall Bailey, Demarcus Corley, Ricardo Torres, Paulie Malignaggi, Carlos Quintana, Zab Judah, Shane Mosley and Antonio Margarito.

 

He’s defeated 9 of them and his only career loss is a now questionable 11^th round TKO to Antonio Margarito, who was caught with loaded gloves in his next bout, and has been suspended as a result.

 

Clottey represents a threat to Cotto. He holds victories over Zab Judah and the late Diego Corrales, and was giving Margarito all sorts of trouble early on before injuring his hand and losing a decision.

 

Sure Andre Berto is a formidable opponent as well. However, he’s inexperienced in big fights compared to Clottey. As for Cintron, he always has a punchers chance and his Puerto Rican heritage would help in the marketing of the fight, but coming off a controversial draw to Sergio Martinez I think Clottey is more deserving.

 

Shane Mosley was never in the running because he doesn’t want to fight Cotto at MSG, were he lost in their welterweight title fight in 2007. But that rematch is sure to happen at some point. Both fighter’s have enough warrior mentality in them to make it happen.

 

Cotto has never ducked anyone, even though some have been accused of ducking him. So I’ll ask again, what’s not to like about Miguel Cotto?

 

Other Ponderings:

 

-          Upon hearing of Tapout co-founder, Charles “Mask” Lewis, passing away I was saddened. Tapout has been responsible for furthering the growth of MMA for years and their sponsorships and TV show have helped many young fighters out with training expenses and exposure so they can fight full time.

 

I did not know him personally. But it’s always a good story to tell about the time I was interviewing the UFC’s Kenny Florian for my radio show and Mask good naturedly threw orange peels at us while cameras rolled for the Tapout reality show.

 

-          The Roy Jones Jr. vs. Omar Sheika undercard is shaping up to be quite interesting. Aside from the intriguing question, “how will boxing fans react to MMA fights on the undercard?” and vice versa, I think the BJ Flores vs. Jose Luis Herrera fight will be interesting.

 

Herrera’s never had a fight that’s gone the distance. Either he’s knocked out his opponent or been knocked out. Flores better not underestimate him; just ask former undefeated cruiserweight Aaron Williams why. Colombian power punchers always have a chance.

 

-          Why is Ken Shamrock still fighting? He’s lost 5 of his last 6 and his only win during that stretch is now being tainted amid reports he tested positive for anabolic steroids for that bout and will be suspended for one year.

 

Once a pioneer and champion in MMA, Shamrock is now just a name opponent being fed to young guns to get a noteworthy victory under their belts.

 

To think this is the same guy who was there in the early days of UFC with Royce Gracie and Dan Severn, and whose first fight with Tito Ortiz was MMA’s first million dollar gate in North America and third fight with Ortiz is still the highest rated TV broadcast of a live MMA event in the United States.

 

His foray to the World Wrestling Federation, now World Wrestling Entertainment, in the late 1990’s helped gain UFC new fans and his upcoming fight vs. Bobby Lashley, which will now likely be canceled, was only interesting because Lashley also has a pro wrestling background and fans would want to see how two former WWE stars would do against each other in a legitimate fight.

 

But it would probably only serve as a stepping stone for Lashley and another loss for the faded Shamrock.

 

Ken: be careful and don’t get yourself hurt.

 

 - I pick Marco Antonio Barrera to KO Amir Khan….but with Freddie Roach appearing so confident of a Khan victory I am beginning to second guess myself. 

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