Cotto's resume?

7.

A lot of smoke and mirrors above 147, won titles from guys with bum knees (not that he couldn't have beaten Foreman, anyway, because he was pretty mediocre, but then that only makes him a pretty mediocre fighter with a bum knee).

At 140-147, he never took a belt from a champ, but his string of solid names at JWW and his career-best win over Mosley at WW somewhat alleviate that. He definitely proved he was a force. He didn't rule either division, though, there were doubters he didn't clear up or else couldn't get past.

I don't believe in plaster in boxing gloves. Neither did Cleveland Williams, having tried it out.

 

Who are we using as a '10' benchmark? Harry Greb? Its hard to say. His overall quality of opposition is a 10, given that his losses came to the very best like Canelo, Floyd, and Manny. In terms of his wins, probably a high 8 or a low 9.

The impressive thing to me about Cotto is just how early on he started fighting dangerous opponents, particularly compared to his 2000 Olympic classmates. People who weren't closely following his career at the time won't remember how quickly he stepped up but he did.

By his 13th pro fight he'd fought Justin Juuko (former title challenger, ableit puffed up at 140lbs), John Brown (limited skills but HORRIFYING one punch knockout power), and Ubaldo Hernandez, who had just recently dropped a rising Juan Diaz and pushed Diaz to the absolute brink before losing a close decision. Wins over former and future titlists like Cesar Bazan and Carlos Maussa and Lovemore N'Dou followed.

Also, many of the guys Cotto beat in his early title reign petered out after getting dismantled by Cotto, but were highly regarded at the time, like Kelson Pinto, Chop Chop Corley, and Muhammad Abdullaev.

 

I would also say 7

He would always come up short against true A class fighters but he had a wonderful career taking on big challengers fought a prime Pac something many wouldnt do and he took his beating like a man instead of blocking the fight with silly demands like mayweather.

 

I'm one of those who think Cotto's skillset would've always matched very competitively with Martinez, who I think could be troubled by technically accomplished men with astute footwork. Cotto was open through the middle, though, and Martinez would've definitely had some fun with that. Certainly wouldn't have been the one-sided deal that it ended up being for Cotto, and a Martinez win is definitely plausible.

A fair benchmark might be the last half-century of greats. That's what I had in mind, anyway.

6.5 to 7 might sound unfairly low to some people, but it's relative. A lot of men have laced them up.

 

First ballot hall of famer. Gave everything to the sport. The most beloved PR fighter of his era. Fought everyone. Fought wars with the best of his era. Went up to middleweight and exposed the reigning hypejob Martinez. An overachiever. His resume, for his era, cannot be criticized.

 

He wouldn't have beat Chop Chop, Pinto, or Torres, without the hard low blows he was landing.

 

Factoring in Cotto's defensive holes, that could be the case.