Miguel Angel Cotto

Miguel Ángel Cotto Vázquez (born October 29, 1980) is a Puerto Rican former professional boxer who competed from 2001 to 2017. He is a multiple-time world champion, and the first Puerto Rican boxer to win world titles in four weight classes, from light welterweight to middleweight. In 2007 and 2009, he reached a peak active pound for pound ranking of seventh by '' The Ring'' magazine. Cotto started out his career as a hard-hitting pressure fighter, but evolved over the years into a more refined boxer-puncher as he moved up in weight.

As an amateur, Cotto represented Puerto Rico in the lightweight and light welterweight divisions at various international events, including the 1999 Pan American Games, the 2000 Olympics, and the 1998 Junior World Championships; the latter in which he won a lightweight silver medal. Having begun his professional career in 2001, Cotto defeated Kelson Pinto for the WBO light welterweight title in 2004. He made six successful defenses before vacating the title to move up in weight. In his first welterweight fight, in 2006, Cotto defeated Carlos Quintana for the vacant WBA title. He successfully defended it four times before a career first loss to Antonio Margarito in 2008. The following year, Cotto won the vacant WBO welterweight title and defended it once before losing it to Manny Pacquiao in the same year.

In 2010, he moved up to light middleweight and won the WBA title from Yuri Foreman. Having been promoted by the WBA to Super champion status, Cotto won a 2011 rematch against Margarito. He lost the WBA (Super) title in 2012 to Floyd Mayweather Jr., in one of the most anticipated fights in modern boxing history. The year would end on a further sour note for Cotto, as he lost in an upset to Austin Trout. Two years later, Cotto defeated Sergio Martínez to win the unified WBC, ''Ring'', and lineal middleweight titles. In doing so, he became the first four-weight world champion from Puerto Rico. In 2015, he defended his titles once before losing to Canelo Álvarez. After more than a year of inactivity, Cotto returned in 2017 to become the WBO light middleweight champion, but lost the title in his final fight to Sadam Ali.

Early years and amateur career

Cotto was born in Providence, Rhode Island, to Puerto Rican parents, and relocated to Caguas, Puerto Rico, with his family before he turned two. There are several figures linked to boxing in his family, including his late father Miguel Cotto Sr., his brother José Miguel Cotto, his second cousin Abner Cotto, and his uncle and former boxing trainer Evangelista Cotto. Cotto began boxing as a child to help lose weight, not anticipating it to end up being his career path. He was taken to the Bairoa Gym in Caguas. There, he was able to develop into a top amateur fighter.
The young Cotto participated in several international tournaments, these include: The 1998 Junior World Championships that took place in Buenos Aires, where he finished in second place while competing in the Lightweight division. His three victories here were by points, the results were: Andrey Kolevin of Ukraine by points 15–3, Dana Laframboise of Canada by points 6–1, and Darius Jasevicius representing Lithuania 9–5. His only loss was to Anton Solopov of Russia by points with a score of 8–9. In 1999, Cotto competed in the Pan American Games that took place in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. He only fought once in a loss to Dana Laframboise of Canada by points with a final score of 2–5. Following his participation in the Pan American tournament, Cotto was part of the Boxing World Championships in Houston, Texas. He lost his only fight by points to Robertas Nomeikas. In his final amateur tournament, Cotto represented Puerto Rico as a Light Welterweight at 2000 Sydney Olympic Games where he lost to Mahamadkadir Abdullayev of Uzbekistan by points. Cotto decided to turn professional after the loss to Abdulaev, ending his amateur career with a record of 125–23.

Trainers

* Evangelista Cotto - February 2001 - April 2009
* Joe Santiago - April 2009 - February 2010
* Emmanuel Steward March 2010 - September 2011
* Pedro Diaz - October 2011 - December 2012
* Freddie Roach July 2013 - December 2017

Professional career

Early career

Early in his career Cotto defeated former world title contender John Brown by decision in the tenth round. He led the score through the entire fight and scored a knockdown in the second round. The judges gave Cotto scores of 100–89, 100–89, and 100–88.

In 2001, Cotto suffered a dangerous injury that threatened his boxing career. As he was driving to the gymnasium at 5 a.m., he apparently fell asleep and crashed, breaking his arm and requiring hospitalization.

On September 13, 2003, Cotto defeated Demetrio Ceballos by knockout in the seventh round at Las Vegas. In a fight where Cotto injured Ceballos with numerous combinations in the sixth round, switching between the orthodox and southpaw stances. In the seventh round Cotto displayed an aggressive style that led to the referee stopping the fight with 0:32 remaining in the round. With this, he was ranked number one in his division by the World Boxing Association.

Cotto's first fight of 2004, was a fourth-round knockout victory over the former world title contender Victoriano Sosa. This was after an eventful week prior to the fight, which included Cotto having to wait four hours for his luggage to arrive (after a 2 a.m. local time arrival) at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas, and almost being removed from the Mandalay Bay Hotel, where the fight was held, by a security guard who thought he was an unaccompanied minor.

On April 8, 2004, he defeated the former world title challenger, Lovemore N'dou, by unanimous decision in Las Vegas. The first three rounds of the fight had a slow pace with neither of the boxers establishing control of the fight. Cotto dominated the fourth and fifth rounds managing to land combinations on N'dou's head. N'dou won the seventh and eighth rounds after landing more accurate hits than Cotto. The last three rounds were even with both fighters establishing short periods of control in the fight. The judges gave Cotto scores of 117–111, 116–112, and 115–113.

Light welterweight

On September 11, 2004, Cotto faced Kelson Pinto from Brazil, for the vacant World Boxing Organization junior welterweight title. This represented the third fight between them, with Pinto being victorious in their two previous encounters, both of which took place while they were still amateurs. The fight was televised by HBO from San Juan, Puerto Rico. During this card Cotto utilized a defensive stance with his hands in a high position instead of his usual aggressive orthodox stance. Over the course of the fight Cotto scored three knockdowns and won the World Boxing Organization Junior Welterweight Championship by knockout in the sixth round.

On December 11, 2004, he successfully defended his title, beating former world champion Randall Bailey by knockout in the sixth round, as part of the Vitali Klitschko

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