The best fighter you'd pick Cotto to beat?

This is a very good thread. Very good indeed.

In terms of WW he has to be way down the list. And I mean way down.

I'm trying to think of he home champs through recent history and how I see the fight go:

Pacquiao - L
Mayweather - L
Mosley - L
Margarito - L
Baldomir - W
Judah - W
Spinks - W
Mayorga - L
Forrest - L
Tito - L
Oscar - L
Whittaker -L
McGirt - W
Brown - W
Blocker - W
Starling - L
Honeyghan - L
Curry - L
Leonard - L
Duran - L
Benitez - L
Palomino - can't call
Stacey - W
Napoles - L
Backus - L
Cokes - can't call
LMR - L
Griffith - L
Paret - W
Jordan - W
Akins - W
Basilio - L
Saxon - W
De Marco - W
Gavilan - L
Robinson - L
Servo - W
Cochrane - W
Zivic - W
Armstrong - L
Ross - L
McLarnin - L

I don't wanna go past that because footage begins to get sparse, or at least sparse enough that I don't think I've seen many of those champs.

So 15-25 with two I can't call from the last 90 years or so. Seems about right to me, on the level of Palomino and Comes which is somewhere from 15-20 in the rankings. Are there any notable WW guys who were never champ that I've missed out? Thurman and Hearns, maybe Spence. All 3 I'd favour over Cotto anyways.

I mean don't get me wrong, I think Cotto is clearly a great fighter. I just don't think his greatness transcends. A WW winning titles at LMW and MW is impressive, and his win list is brilliant for his era. I just reckon there's a good number of greats who's gonna beat him.

 

How does Cotto lose to Mayorga or a brickless Margarito?

 

Well we've already seen him lose to Margarito so that one is easy to answer.

As for Mayorga, I think he just bull rushes Cotto. He's stronger and harder hitting plus he has a cast iron jaw. Cotto isn't slick enough to box him from range, at some point he'll have to fight fire with fire and when he does Mayorga will be the one left swinging.

 

I said a brickless Margarito. We've already seen how Margarito looked when his weapons got taken away, the man literally went 1-3 not to mention losing the rematch to a shop worn, soft Cotto who just got knocked out by a midget. Concreto's power was literally non existent after he got exposed.

You could be right about Mayorga though, but I think people underrate Cotto's ability to take a punch due to the post brick scandal. He seemed to take a shot just fine before he got beaten half to death by Concreto. After, the man literally almost got ko'd by pillow fists Mayweather at 154 with clown gloves. He made post Tarver Jones Jr look like Toney in comparison.

 

I strongly doubt Margarito would have got away with hardened wraps in the Cotto fight. Plus Cotto always seemed a bit chinny to Mosley had him on the run and he got badly hurt against Torres or Quintana in their fight can't remember which one.

 

While I agree with the Mosley point, I don't agree that Margarito wasn't loaded up for the Cotto fight. He brutalized him, horrendously, career altering beating, and after the wraps were discovered before Mosley, he lost that terrible edge. I'm almost certain he had the hardened wraps against Cotto.

 

He has a chance against Tszyu that is if you consider Kostya to be a great (I don't).

 

Granted, this is just circumstantial, but I always figured if he was going to do it for Mosley (in which Shane was actually treated as a bit of an afterthought going in to it- Margo was a 4-1 favorite), why wouldnt he for a bigger, more significant fight with a much more bitter rival?

Seems illogical to be clean for the huge fight and, all of a sudden, decide to load up for a smaller fight against a lesser (as was perceived at the time) opponent.

 

I just don't see how he'd have gotten away with it.

 

1% favorite to beat Cuevas

 

If we're picking THE ALL-TIME greatest fighter Cotto could beat, in the weight classes he fought in, my pick would be Alexis Arguello at 140.

The Arguello who fought Pryor at 140 (and lost twice) but he was still good enough to waste guys like Claude Noel and (later) Billy Costello.

I think the 140-pound version of Cotto could manage to defeat the 140-pound version of Arguello.

Not sure. But that would be my pick.

Arguello.

 

As I recall, the pads were barely discovered in time before the fight. Found this quote, too: "Things got worse for Margarito when, in November of 2009, details emerged that red stains on the hand wraps used in his fight with Cotto were similar to the stains in his fight with Mosley."
https://roundbyroundboxing.com/flas...antonio-margarito-brilliance-and-controversy/

I'm fully convinced that Margarito was using them in the Cotto fight, and maybe before.