He has to pivot out and control the angle instead of backpedaling. He boxed well enough in the first half of the first fight; he just has to watch the way he ducks down to avoid eating uppercuts, and move more efficiently with lateral movements instead of expending energy retreating and finding himself in tight spots so often.
This training, in my opinion does look better. On paper and theory its great and works. However, as with the first fight, everything went well until he started getting hit, repeatedly. I think the difference in this fight will be whether he can stay focused on the game plan when punches start raining down on him. As for Margarito, whether his eye will hold up and his ability to take a punch will be there. From the first fight, it was obvious -- Cotto had the shorter, straighter punches, with more pop behind them and greater speed. Technically, a better boxer, not necessarily a better fighter.
Oddly Cotto is betting favourite. I would like him to win but I will but 100 on Margacheatto victory. 2.9 odds for the guy who has proven once before he can beat Cotto are great
A couple things I've noticed with Cotto are that even when he's in his boxer-mode, he can only throw when he plants his feet. And instead of slowing the pace, he seems to give his opponent more momentum by retreating so fast. Like you said, it would help him out a lot if he used pivots and controlled the angle. When Cotto is moving like he has in quite a few fights, it's more of a "please stay away from me" style and not an "I'll capitalize on your mistakes, control the distance, keep you off balance, and take away your best weapons/limit your offense" one. He also can't stop every 10 seconds against the ropes with his body squared and his hands at his cheekbones. I can't believe how fundamental of a mistake he made so often against Margarito. Even when Margarito would throw those consecutive uppercuts, Cotto would just stand there and not try to block a single one of them. For being very solid in several aspects of the sport, he's pretty poor at some others (namely defense). I hope he's learned from his past mistakes and is fully prepared tactically next week. I'd be really disappointed if he fought the exact same way as he did last time.
I really hope Cotto does it, but even if he does all the things he should have done in the first fight I still see Margarito wearing him down. We already know that he can't hurt him, to the head at least.
I agree his training looks good, but lets not go overboard. I'm leaning towards a Cotto victory only because it seems like he's really training like he should, but expecting him to stop Margo will be a very long shot in my opinion.
Yes, because Margarito is not training! We all know that cheat is hanging around drinking tequila and ****ing "güeritas" all day long!
I believe the most important man in the ring that night ,may be who referees this bout.What instructions he will be given by the Commission Doctors in relationship to the eye.If swelling occurs,which is almost certain,will the ref stop the fight premature? Can't ****ing wait!Got my tickets and the Garden will be rocking!:thumbsup