Straight Writes and Jabs: An Inside Look at Another Year in Boxing

Miguel Cotto Grows Old at Thirty-Two

Fighters get old young. Miguel Cotto Grows Old at Thirty-Two Years ago, Patrick Kehoe wrote,“We must be ever vigilant to record the truths and meanings that take place in the boxing ring.” With that in mind, let’s take a look at Miguel Cotto’s December 1, 2012, outing against AustinTrout at Madison Square Garden. Cotto has fought with honor as a professional boxer for twelve years. At his best, he could choose between outboxing opponents and mauling them in the trenches. He was always willing to go in tough. Miguel followed Felix Trinidad as the standard bearer for Puerto Rican boxing. He’s soft-spoken with aura of dignity about him. An awareness of the gravity of what he does for a living is etched on his face. The desire for self-improvement through hard work has been a constant in his life. Late in his ring career, Cotto decided to learn English. To have learned it as well as he has at an advanced age is a significant accomplishment. Cotto-Trout was Miguel’s eighth fight at Madison Square Garden, where he has been a profitable franchise for seven years.Team Cotto and Golden Boy (the lead promoter for the fight) were priming Miguel for a big-money outing against Canelo Alvarez in LasVegas on May 4, 2013. Viewed in that light, the choice of Trout as an opponent was a high-risk low-reward gamble.Austin is the kind of fighter who would always have given Miguel trouble. His 25-and-0 record had been built against limited opposition. But he’s a tall elusive southpaw with skills. Also, Cotto’s power hasn’t carried well to 154 pounds. Opponents at 140 said that his hook to the body felt like an iron wrecking ball. Opponents at 154 take his punches and return fire. Fighters rarely say that they aren’t as good as they used to be. But at the final pre-fight press conference for Cotto-Trout, Miguel acknowledged ,“I’m getting older. Everybody knows it. I just want to be the best myself that I can be.” STRAIGHT WRITES AND JABS 69 British promoter FrankWarren once observed,“The knockout punch is about perfect timing. So is matchmaking; picking the right guy at the right time.” Many boxing people believed prior to Cotto-Trout that the selection of Austin as Miguel’s opponent was the product of careless matchmaking. There’s a special feel to a night at the fights at Madison Square Garden.But Cotto-Trout never caught on as a must-see promotion.There were 21,239 fans in the arena when Miguel exacted revenge against Antonio Margarito in December 2011.This time, the announced attendance was 13,096 and the atmosphere was far less torrid. Despite being the fighter with a belt,Trout entered the ring first and was introduced first as well.Then the action began. During fight week, Miguel had looked older than his thirty-two years.When he got in the ring, he still looked older. Cotto was the aggressor early in the fight. He knows how to cut off a boxing ring, and he worked the body nicely when he got inside. But for the most part,Trout kept him at bay with good footwork and a stiff jab. By round six, Miguel was visibly tiring.Then he stopped pushing the pace, which allowed Austin equal say in the flow of the fight. In the second half of the bout, Cotto gave it all he had. He seemed to dig deeper than Trout. But as the Gospel According to St. Matthew recounted in a somewhat different context, Miguel’s spirit was willing but his flesh was weak.The reserves of strength simply weren’t there. The scoring of the judges was a lopsided 119–109,117–111,117–111 inTrout’s favor. Most ringside observers (including this one) thought the fight was closer than that. But one was hard-pressed to find an impartial observer who thought that Miguel had won. After the fight, Cotto told the media,“I still have boxing in my mind. I just want to rest with my family the rest of the year. I never make excuses. I accept my defeats and I learn from them and I just move forward.” What Miguel should learn from this fight is that it might be time to retire. He’s still a capable fighter.There will always be a sanctioning body...