20 years ago yesterday: Miguel Ángel Cotto Vázquez vs. Mohammadqodir Mamatkulovich Abdullaev

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Twelve rounds scheduled for the WBO super lightweight championship, 3rd defense of the hard-hitting undefeated boricua prospect known as "Junito". In the other corner, an Uzbek gold medal Olympian who as of then laid claim to being the last man to beat the Puerto Rican (albeit in the amateurs).

Cotto's reign until this point was already perfectly respectable. So too was his career on balance including the run immediately preceding his reign.

Following a string of a dozen straight nationally televised victories (spanning Telefutura, ESPN2, HBO and PPV) over increasingly good opposition, from Juan Ángel Macías through Lovemore N'Dou - he overcame the also lossless Kelson Carlos Santos "Fera" Pinto of Brazil for the vacant strap. It was still only barely considered a legitimate world title by 2005, with the WBO itself considered largely just a glorified Euro league for most of the nineties and early part of this millennium. The hardware in Cotto vs. Pinto was a secondary or even tertiary prize behind their professional zeroes and the pride of putting a bow on their personal rivalry.

Pinto, you see, had defeated Cotto in the amateurs - five months before Abdullaev did. This ended Cotto's run in the second round of America's boxing qualifiers for Sydney - meaning he already had failed once. A miraculous juggernaut sprint through a third Olympic qualifier tourney - culminating in a victory over Juan Urango in the finals - punched his ticket, only for Abdullaev to bounce him in the very opening match, not even within sniffing distance of the medal stage. (four days later, Abdullaev would stop Pinto before going on to a dominant quarters, semis and finals)

After the Pinto battle came two defenses over solid elder statesmen of the light welterweight division. Nobody would say that either Randall "KO King" Bailey or DeMarcus "Chop-Chop" Corley was yet anywhere near shot - but they were on the other side of 30, each several years older than Cotto with lots of miles on the odometer. Mind you, they were both still in very decent recent form at 140. Corley was coming off having given both Floyd Mayweather and Zab Judah hell in the previous couple of years. Bailey had a close and somewhat controversial loss to a young Ishé Smith the same year he fought Cotto, and he and Corley had fought on close terms a year prior.

All well and good. But something felt like it was missing. Cotto still had to prove himself. Avenging the amateur loss to Pinto, mopping up fringe contenders to earn that shot, and stopping tough world ranked customers like Bailey & Corley didn't scratch that itch. Cotto needed to win a big one. Who better than someone that denied him on the biggest stage of his life so far and dashed his Olympic dreams? (especially after such a hard road to even be present in Sydney)

Now of course, today it's ho-hum for Uzbekistan to medal at the Olympics. Almost expected. They have twenty and counting. Gold in the last three games, and five gold last year in Paris alone. Prior to Abdullaev, however, they only had one medal - Karim Tulaganov's bronze at light middleweight in Atlanta in '96. Abdullaev was their first of now ten gold medalists. This was a big fish to go casting about for. Even if the Uzbeks' national amateur boxing training program wasn't yet spoken of in hushed tones, anybody that followed the simonpures knew Abdullaev was a serious player.

Not to mention, some whispered, he did seem to have Cotto's number. 17-7 under the old 20th century amateur scoring system is a rout. He had his number when Cotto was a teenager, anyway. Would he still?

Well, no. At least not consistently enough for it to matter. The official judges had Cotto up by a round or two (79-73 x2 and 78-74) when the contest was stopped due to swelling around the Uzbek's eye in the ninth. You could reasonably give Abdullaev rounds three, seven, and maybe six. Cotto was winning any way you slice it, however - and that likely was with or without the blepharal tissue damage.

Abdullaev tried beating Cotto at what had fans had come to know as his own game - pressing forward and working the body. Cotto was able to box and move behind a jab very effectively, and controlled most of the action - with both the punch stats and the face of Abdullaev bearing that out.

Demons exorcised. First "big one"...won. Probably his most emotional victory until Margarito II.

Now, what's funny is - this was considered the beginning of a looming end for Cotto. There were already rumors of a Ricky Hatton fight being lined up - and based on Hatton's form vs. Kostya Tszyu a week earlier and Cotto's here versus Abdullaev many saw a mismatched slaughter in favor of the Brit as being a given. A writer for this very website - the one this forum is attached to, anyway - said they couldn't see Cotto ever progressing to be at the level of a Tszyu or Hatton. Well...

As for Abdullaev, he definitely left the best of himself in the ams. He would finish his pro career with a 21-4 mark after debuting in his late twenties. Nothing to sneeze at on paper, but he didn't really beat anybody of note - whereas in his prime, he was cleaning house at international tourneys left & right.