IMO, if Cotto wants wants to redeem himself he has to fight a Paul Williams...

Cotto will fight whoever they put in front of him.

 

Assuming he regains form, I'd expect Cotto to stop Williams. Paul is poor defensively and doesn't have Margarito's chin, and that long torso is just begging to be exploited.

 

Sorry to bring up the ABC argument, but Paul Williams took Margarito's best shots and still pulled out the win.

Williams may not have Margo's natural power, but he can match him for workrate and appears to have much better durability than Cotto (I don't know why you brought up the chins, when Cotto has been rattled several times in that area).

And, unlike Margarito, Williams makes better use of his height and reach.

 

Cotto is a great fighter. #2 after The Tijuana Tornado.

I think he beats everybody even The Punisher. PW isn't offensive and relentless like AM

 

That is exactly how he beat Marg

 

Williams is even worse defensively than Margarito (at least AM defends one area), and he won't hold up to Cotto's best shots the way Margo did. Williams was stunned on several occasions by Quintana, a non-puncher.

I can see Williams bothering Cotto with his workrate and reach -- as everyone at 147 is going to be bothered by this -- but Cotto's superior skill is too much for the Punisher. I've never liked this fight for Paul.

 

I'm not judging your pick of the fight winner, just your reasoning.

Both Williams and Cotto built early leads against Margarito, but the fact (via the judges scorecards) is that Williams held onto his lead and won the fight whereas Cotto gassed out, got trapped against the ropes too many times, and got taken out. Williams did not get trapped on the ropes as often against Margo, and this is the same strategy he would use against Cotto, for Cotto (like Margarito) would be the aggressor in this fight, but Williams would be bouncing around the centre ring area bombarding him with shots (not getting trapped).

Cotto's pinpoint power punches may take him to a decision, but I can't see him blowing Williams away. And Williams is not a weakling in defence; because he uses his height and reach so well he is usually out of range of punches (I believe the Quintana fight was a very bad off night; he was sluggish in defence in that instance, but I haven't seen anything before or since that fight that would lead me to believe that he would get caught by such winging (diving in) punches that he absorbed against Quintana - he did knock him out in one round in the rematch).

And just to bring up something that we might not wan't to talk about, because he is such a tonic for the sport, but Cotto may never be the same after last nights fight; it was a brutal, mentally as well as physically, breakdown.

 

P.Will would stomp Cotto's midget ass. If Margarito's size and pressure caused him problems then he's in for a long night against the Punisher. Cotto can't win by fighting on the backfoot and moving around so much. The size difference and reach will become more apparent in this match up too.

 

The Difference being Cotto built a lead while Margs was coming forward and Margs started early with the pwoer shots wich paid off in the 11th
Vs Willimas he had no real resistance from Margs who didnt start till the 6th round so Williams took no real damage vs Margs to build his lead because of Margs inactivity but when Margs did start throwing his power shots Williams was rocked a few times but if Margs ad started early like he did vs Cotto Williams would not have won that fight

 

Williams is bigger and more importantly faster than Margo. That 5-1 round cushion is not a given for Cotto against PW. Also unlike Cotto, PW took Margo's best shots and scored a win.

 

Cotto needs to redeem himself with a rematch with Margarito. I have not heard anyone talk about this and I have not read it yet, but Cotto's gameplan for Margarito was very baffling. Every round that went by, I kept asking myself how Margarito would take Cotto's devasting body punches. Instead, Cotto focused squarely on Margarito's chin, which everybody knew Cotto could not hurt. Who the hell came up with the gameplan of back-peddling and head-hunting the entire fight? Did none of Cotto's team ever see film on Margarito? Did they realize that head shots and back-peddling were not the right strategy against him. Cotto should have sold out to Margarito's body for the first half of the fight to slow him down. He then could have outboxed him for the second half. He needed to get Margarito's respect early and slow him down. Only his great body attack could accomplish this. I am very dismayed at the complete lack of body punching from Cotto from the opening bell. IMO, this is why he lost.

 

A rematch would be more simpler but if he feels he can never beat Margarito than yeah Williams is the logical foe.

 

Spot on:good

If people start mentioning defence, durability and chin it is Cotto they have to look at for the deficiencies in these areas, not Paul Williams.

 

"I kept asking myself how Margarito would take Cotto's devasting body punches. Instead, Cotto focused squarely on Margarito's chin, which everybody knew Cotto could not hurt. Who the hell came up with the gameplan of back-peddling and head-hunting the entire fight"



I agree, I don;t know what they were thinking, It's like they gave away Margo is stronger without even trying to see if they could make him back up.

As lampley and the other idiot were raving how great Cottos counterpunching was. I was sitting there saying those punched have no power as there all off the back foot and having no effect, he's (Cotto's) not setting down on any of them (all to the head btw). Then there was absolutely no body punching by Cotto, (the little there may have been, was again off the back foot, or arm while disengaging/moving).

Margo on the other hand was relentless, always throwing hard bodyshots. Just as you should against a mover.

Also not once in the fight did Cotto change tempo/move forward and even try to back Margo up.

It's Like Cotto thought he was Mayweather.

Having said that, Margo fought a great fight and my Hat's off to him. he is one tough sob.

The other thing, it's great to see too guys fight on this level and give all. Without the BS, and respect each other. It's called being a pro or maybe a grown up.