Even how impressive Miguel Cotto's performance in defending his middleweight crown against Daniel Geale on Saturday night on HBO, the weight issue always casts shadow on his impressive knockout victory. Cotto stopped the totally weight-drained Geale after scoring two knockdowns in Round 4.
In the fourth round Cotto (40-4, 33KO's) landed a crisp left hook spot on the chin of Geale (31-4, 16KO's) who dropped his guard during the exchanges. Geale went down hard with his back flat on the canvas at around 2:43 mark. Geale was able to beat the count and continue. But at around 1:44 mark, Geale went down again after a series of punches to the body from Cotto landed. The referee had seen enough and waive the fight off 1:28 mark in the fourth round.
The drama prior to this fight is the 158 lbs catch weight that Cotto imposed against Daniel Geale, a legitimate middleweight . Cotto is the so-called lineal middleweight champion. He is the man who beat the man at the division wherein the suppose weight limit is 160 lbs.
Many question about the catch-weight specially on Cotto because the 158 lbs limit will give him advantage. We all know why Cotto wanted the catch-weight. He's not a middleweight. He's even small at junior welterweight. And Cotto admitted right away when Max Kellerman asked him if he's a middleweight during the interview.
"My weight yesterday was 153.6 pounds. Do you think I'm a middleweight? I'm not," says the four division champion Miguel Cotto. He sounds sarcastic but really honest.
Well, my only concern is that, Miguel is not a middleweight period. He admits that he's not a middleweight. I think it's better not to hold the championship that long. It's better to relinquish it and let the real middleweight fight for it. I think it's unfair for the legit MW's to challenge Cotto on catch weights and look like zombies during the weigh-in.
It seems he wanted the Canelo fight next and I think it will happen at 154 lbs, which Cotto makes the weight without any problem. And if he wins or losses, he can still take on Gennady Golovkin after that defending his middleweight crown. But please... I don't like the fight happening at 155 lbs catch-weight!
Do you think it's fair to legit MW's for Cotto to held the MW crown and defending through catchweights below the MW 160 lbs limit?
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