Miguel Cotto vs. David Lemieux

Cotto, most can probably agree, has the higher ring IQ...possibly his saving grace here... but, I do just want to point out, not that it affects literally anything in the ring, but...Cotto is barely even bilingual. Face it, his English kind of sucks for having been an established mainland star for years. He just never put in all that much effort to polish it after getting a passable grasp on it and getting to where he can more or less slog through an interview.

Lemeiux is breezily, conversationally fluent in Armenian, Lebanese Arabic, French, and English. Maybe not as dumb as he looks...

 

The last time Lemieux fought a boricua, he KO1ed him. (Héctor Camacho Jr.)

The last time Cotto fought a Canadian he pitched a near shutout (over Dana Laframboise in the amateurs)

 

I'm confident in their listed heights. Lemieux was just about looking eye to eye with Golovkin when they fought, and Golovkin is 5'10". If anything maybe the better part of an inch tops in the Kazakh's favor. Cotto meanwhile stands definitely no higher than 5'7". Margarito dwarfed him; Kamegai and Canelo had a couple inches in him; Geale, Maravilla and especially D-Rod were like watching a midget chop down redwood trees; and he visibly side by side in the ring was a tad shorter than Mayweather.

 

Anybody think Lemieux possibly carries the Hall of Famer, out of respect? Has he ever mentioned having looked up to Cotto or being a fan of his?

 

Now, there is another wrinkle here: what if Cotto (by far the A-side here, and Lemieux has desperately been chasing this match since Cotto debuted at MW, getting more and more vocal and finally calling him out directly the night of the Kamegai victory. David clearly wants the payday, the privilege of sharing the ring with a HOF 1st-ballot, and the knowledge that he can boost his own legacy rather easily by picking on a much older smaller guy that has always had durability issues, ranging from his chin to heart to stamina to facial tissue...) stipulates a catchweight like he did with Daniel Geale? Just that extra cut of a few pounds to make 157 seemed to take a bite out of Geale's vigor. Could the old man actually get the KO if he drains Lemieux and launches an early assault with all guns blazing?

 

I'm torn. If he goes into this with no catchweight, mad respect to Cotto (but I fear he gets destroyed). If he falls into the bad old habits of that diva mindset and feeling like he 'deserves' to demand that Lemieux boil down to 157 or so, then it becomes hard to root for him or to credit a win even though it will still technically be an underdog achievement on paper.

 

Wait what? Who has he beaten? Stevens, HNN, Rosado, Guerrero Tapia...is 13-1 (9) in the last six years with the only defeat coming at the hands of freaking Golovkin, who took eight rounds of hurling the kitchen sink at him to stop Lemieux. The kid is a juggernaut with nukes attached to his wrists. Not really sure what more he needs to do to impress you as the very real and dangerous threat he is here to natural blown-up 140lber Cotto with lots of wear and tear and scar tissue.

 

Crazy and masochistic yes but what a way to silence his naysayers and ride off into the sunset (even off a KO loss) that would be. Just tell all the haters to eat his ass. Plus, if he somehow pulls off the W??? At regular MW??? I think the roof at MSG would get blown off.

Of course if he goes the diva route and makes all kind of stipulatory demands like a catchweight and big poofy gloves, then it just throws fuel on the haters' fire and will haunt any mention of him long after retirement.

 

I agree Cotto has a much better and deeper resume than Lemieux but that was mostly well south of middle and he's nine years older and war-tattered! And has always (even down at light welter) carried a certain air of vulnerability and will be in with, in Lemieux, not anywhere close to his best opponent but certainly his straight-up hardest punching one, by far.