Photo by Brant Wilson/RBRBoxing
On Wednesday, August 26, 2015 Miguel Cotto (40-4, 33 KOs) and Canelo Alvarez (45-1-1, 32 KOs) stopped in New York City to continue the promotion of their impending championship clash on November 21, 2015.
The press tour kicked off on Monday in Los Angeles, and since then both men have focused on their willingness to please the fans and add another great chapter to the legendary Mexico vs. Puerto Rico boxing rivalry.
“We are both great fighters and are coming to give a great fight on November 21,” stated Cotto on Tuesday in Mexico City.
The face offs have been intense, but the words spoken from each respective side have been cordial and nothing to write home about–except of course for when Freddie Roach speaks.
“We will win by knockout,” said Roach during the Los Angeles press conference.
We’ve heard this sort of prediction before from the decorated trainer, but he seems to truly believe that his fighter has the ability to score a stoppage victory.
“We need to break him down early, work the body, and then take over because his conditioning isn’t that good. He trained in one of my gyms before (Wild Card West) and I didn’t always get good reports. He was a little bit lazy at times,” said Roach.
Cotto has stopped his last three opponents, but none of those fighters were in their prime or able to compete physically with Cotto.
In Canelo, Cotto will be facing a strong, young fighter who has only gotten better since dropping a one-sided fight (despite what CJ Ross says) to Floyd Mayweather.
Canelo is riding high since scoring a potential knockout of the year his last time out against James Kirkland and looks to solidify his status as boxing’s next cash cow and in-ring star.
While Roach is fully focused on getting his man ready for the Mexican superstar, he did dive into talks on Wednesday about what could possibly be next for Cotto if he is successful versus Canelo.
“If it’s GGG [Gennady Golovkin] I’m 100 percent happy with that.”
Roach went on to state that he’s not quite sure which fight would be bigger, one against Golovkin or a rematch against Mayweather.
“That’s the thing, what’s the bigger fight? Miguel said to me after our first fight together, ‘If you trained me for the Floyd fight I would’ve knocked him out.’ So I would like to see that,” said Roach.
One thing is for sure, before either of those enticing matchups can be discussed, Cotto must take care of business against Canelo.
Header photo by Ismael Gallardo/RBRBoxing
