Miguel Cotto Prime

Judah - Mosley - Margo

154 is the closest since. He has discipline in his training camp for the first time since Envangalista.

 

around 2007-2009. physical peak and at his utmost prime. the time when he fought mosley and margarito specifically, imo.

 

the thing is, you cannot pinpoint exactly when and it depends on each fighter. you could have physically slowed down but you could make up for this in some other aspects of your game. but it's safe to say that it was around 2008. cotto was undefeated, confident and on high morale. of course, the lessons he had in his lost against margarito and pacquiao had given him wisdom and experience although he dipped physically since then.

 

:think

 

Good post puga. Agree completely.

 

Even though he was still very good after that fight.

He was never the same after the first Margo fight.

06/08 was his prime in my view.

 

Very hard question to answer, imo. It's very difficult to assess exactly when his prime was because his style has changed quite a bit.

At 140 he was an aggressive, come forward body puncher with a mean left hook to the body and questionable punch resistance. He was fantastic to watch but was hurt a number of times (most dramatically in the Torres fight where he was close to being stopped a couple of times) and this was put down to him being weight drained.

When he moved up to 147 he kept his style at first, coming forward and stopping both Quintana and Judah in impressive fashion. He took some helacious shots against Judah without being too badly hurt so alot of people thought the weight-drained excuse for being hurt was fair enough. He then fought a number of iron-chinned fighters in a short space of time (Mosley, Clottey, Margarito, Pacquiao etc) and tended to fight off the back foot more often than not. He didn't throw the left hook to the body with the same aggression and intent. He took alot of punches in all 4 fights and i think it's definitely shortened his physical prime, especially the beatings he took against Margarito and Pacquiao. Nobody ever seems to mention the Clottey fight though, but it was a long, tough fight where he took alot of punches and it was close aswell (i had it 114-113 Cotto).

Since he's came up to 154 he's had a couple of different trainers who have both done very well with him imo. Manny Steward is a cracking technician who ironed a few flaws out of his game and whilst Pedro Diaz is mainly a conditioning coach, he's tactically very good and has helped Cotto aswell. He seems to be a more intelligent fighter these days, as shown in the Margarito fight. In the first fight the difference was Cotto tried to back off instead of tieing Margarito up, and in doing this he gave Margarito room to get his shows off. Despite Tony being strong, he is actually quite poor on the inside (see Shane fight) and doesn't know what to do when clinched. Diaz (and Steward, who apparently discussed a Tony rematch and the tactics for it with Cotto before he was sacked) recognised this and they used it to great effect. He was also much better defensively than he's ever been in the Floyd fight, despite facing the most accurate puncher in the sport. His head movement was more impressive than it's ever been and he was doing lots of subtle things that show an improved Ring IQ.

Trying to figure out exactly where his prime is is difficult because he's regressed physically, but is now a more intelligent fighter and technically better than ever imo.

 

good question but he looks great with diaz

 

Great post.

 

Physicallity is a dodgy issue here.

Cotto has never been a fighter dependant on speed for example. His timing has been the great equaliser and it's apparent that he still has that. He's very similar to how MAB was in that regard.

The shoulder surgery for his right hands seems to of been legit as his right hand looks much more explosive now than previously.

Cotto may of receeded slightly physically, but he's still physically strong (Out muscled Mayweather, which is MUCH harder than people think.) and now he's technically and tactically superior than before.

I think the win over Margarito has rejuvenated him mentally too.

 

The win over Margarito definitely sorted him out mentally, i have no doubt about that whatsoever.

If pushed, i'd actually say he's in his prime now. I can't imagine many will agree and can definitely see why people would say 2006-2009 sort of time, but he's a more complete fighter now than ever imo. I'd strongly favour him to beat Alvarez, for example.