Miguel Cotto Destroys Sergio Martinez, becomes 1st Puerto Rican Boxer To Win 4 Division Titles
Miguel Cotto scored a stunning upset over middleweight champion Sergio Martinez in their title fight Saturday at Madison Square Garden in New York, stunning not because Cotto was a heavy underdog against the bigger Martinez — the Vegas line had him at just 2-1 — but for the way Cotto totally destroyed the Argentine, who was considered among the world’s top pound-for-pound boxing talents.
In stripping Martinez of the lineal middleweight championship belt he held since defeating Kelly Pavlik on April 17 of 2010, Miguel Cotto became the first Puerto Rican boxer to claim championships in four weight classes, a feat never accomplished by such earlier greats from the boxing-mad island as Felix Trinidad and Wilfredo Gomez.
Cotto dominated Martinez from the opening bell, sending the 39-year-old Argentine to the canvas three times in the first round alone, though Sergio Martinez appeared from that first round to be bothered by a bad knee.
Cotto kept the pressure on Martinez, battering the once-agile champ and knocking him down again in the ninth round, which proved to be the final frame of the fight. After the ninth, Martinez’s trainer Pablo Sarmiento refused to allow his fighter to come off the stool. Referee Michael Griffin had no choice but to call a halt to the bout, with an official time of six seconds off the clock in the 10th round, sending the overwhelmingly pro-Cotto crowd of 21,090 its collective feet.
“I never went wild after I knocked him down three times,” said Cotto after the TKO victory became official. “This was a 12-round fight, not a one-round fight. It’s the happiest day of my life. My maturity as a professional fighter showed in the ring today. I told myself not to go wild.”
Before the fight, the 33-year-old Cotto said that making history as the first four-division champ from Puerto Rico was his main motivation for taking the fight.
“I’m so proud of Miguel,” said new Cotto trainer Freddie Roach, who is best-known as the trainer of Manny Pacquiao. “He worked very hard in camp and deserved this historic victory. He was picture perfect tonight. We won every round.”
Miguel Cotto was guaranteed a take of $7 million for the fight, which was telecast live by HBO Pay-Per-View. Sergio Martinez earned a purse of $1.5 million, but that payday is likely to increase once pay-per-view revenue has been tabulated. Martinez will receive a percentage of the PPV cash.
Despite the defeat, Sergio Martinez now boasts a stellar career record of 51 wins against just three defeats and a pair of draws. Miguel Cotto lifts his record to 39-4 with the decisive victory.
