Review by AllTheBestFights.com: 2015-11-21, good fight with great action in the final: Miguel Cotto vs Saul Alvarez gets three stars.The world champion in four different weight classes Miguel Angel Cotto entered this fight with a professional boxing record of 40-4-0 (33 KOs=82%) and he is ranked as the No.2 in the world (currently the #1 in this division is Gennady Golovkin). The Puerto Rican suffered two consecutive defeats in 2012, against Floyd Mayweather Jr (=Mayweather vs Cotto) and Austin Trout (=Cotto vs Trout), but then he has won three bouts winning the Wbc Mw title against Sergio ‘Maravilla’ Martinez (=Martinez vs Cotto) and defending it once with Daniel Geale (=Cotto vs Geale).
His opponent, the 25-year-old Saul Alvarez (10 years younger than Cotto), has an official record of 45-1-1 (32 knockouts) and he entered as the No.1 super welterweight. ‘Canelo’ also fought against Austin Trout but he won by unanimous decision in 2013 (=Alvarez vs Trout); in the same year he faced Floyd Mayweather Jr suffering his first loss (=Mayweather vs Alvarez). After this bout the Mexican has won three consecutive fights defeating James Kirkland in his last one (candidate for boxing Fight of the Year 2015, Canelo vs Kirkland). Cotto vs Canelo Alvarez is valid for the vacant WBC World middleweight title (belt held by Cotto but the Wbc stripped the Puerto Rican just four days before the fight because he refused to pay a $300,000 sanctioning fee to have the title on the line). Watch the video and rate this fight!
Date: 2015-11-21
Where: Mandalay Bay Hotel & Casino, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
Division: middleweight (160 lbs, 72.6 kg)
Title: vacant WBC World middleweight title
Cotto’s previous fight: Miguel Cotto vs Daniel Geale
Alvarez’s previous fight: Saul Canelo Alvarez vs James Kirkland
Alvarez’s next fight: Saul Alvarez vs Amir Khan
Cotto’s next fight: Miguel Cotto vs Yoshihiro Kamegai
Official video:
Good fight. Not quite what it was billed to be, but the undercard duel between Miura and Vargas was a thriller.
Miura-Vargas should be a candidate for FOTY in my opinion.
Hi Olivier. Yes, it is FOTY caliber for sure. The psychological battle in that ring produced almost constant tension and unrelieved menace. Can’t get enough of ferocious pitched battles like this one!
I have similar hopes also for Lee-Saunders and Eubank Jr.-O’Sullivan yet to come in 2015. There’s also Fury-Klitschko, too, though I don’t think it will be pitched, haha. Btw, if you are interested in that fight, check out the face-to-face video which is diabolically good:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQ9wtdw5I4s
HAHAHA! I just watched the first two minutes of the video and I’m already laughing at tears… Oh my!.. Fun fact: As a grad student in psychology, I’m a trained therapist too! Klitschko and I have so much in common… Thanks for sharing! I’ll resume watching this show as soon as I can stop laughing.
I don’t think I’ll be watching Klitschko vs Fury because there will be Bute vs deGale on the same day, Arjay. But maybe with the time difference I can work something out, it looks to be an intriguing fight. I read Fury was comparing himself to Ali, which is kind of too much lol
Haha. I just watched the first few minutes too. Funny, Fury is funny and a good talker.
Hey Arjay! Got time to watch the full video and this psychological war/schoolyard bullying almost got me hyped for this one! Best moments of this face-to-face are:
– Klitschko saying Fury is the kind of man who thinks he can stop a train with his head and Fury thinking for a few seconds… then answering: “No I don’t…”.
– Klitschko asking Fury what animal he is and the latter answering: “Anyone you want… a tiger, a bear, a chicken, a mouse… wathever you like!”.
– Fury complaining that Klitschko doesn’t let him speak, but being the one who’s interrupting Klitschko all the time.
Anyway, it was quite fun!
About the fight itself, I think Fury doesn’t have much more than only a very slight chance to win by KO in the early rounds. He might say that “age is the key – to victory (it even rhymes!…)”, but he lacks in experience (amongst many other things in my opinion) and he only went the distance a very few times. I think Klitschko will probably be able to keep Fury at distance with his jab and to clinch when Fury will get too close. Unless… something that has never happened with Klitschko happens tonight… If I may throw another rhyme: “Referee might be the key to victory”, if he doesn’t allow Klitschko to clinch on and on.
But that’s a lot of faith in Tony Weeks, I must say, especially after last week’s fight (Vargas-Miura). My prediction is that Klitschko will take is time and win a late rounds KO victory or and easy UD. But the good thing about boxing, especially in the HW division, is that one punch can easily turn things around. I don’t really like both of these fighters, mainly because they don’t fight with style. I’d rather like to see a matchup like Wilder-Joshua.
I think that just like Mattsnow, I’ll be more interested in the event from Quebec City tonight. DeGale should win an easy fight against Bute, but the undercard will be very interesting. Alvarez is a very skilled and powerful LHW, and his opponent Chilemba is a very tough guy as well. This might be the best fight of the night. Also in action, Imam, one of the best rising star in the 140lbs division will display his skills against a nobody.
Enjoyed your take on the video, Olivier. And if it’s any consolation, I also picked Wlad to win. I scarcely imagined Fury pulling off what he did!
For me the fight had everything: the farcical psy-war between two egomaniacs turned into a very tense, and even more surprising, fight. Not loads of action, but then that is a measure of what you wisely said about the risks in heavyweight matches. My jaw did not hang open tonight, but its hinge was certainly loosened when Fury essentially put into action all of his pre-fight bluster against Wladimir.
Now perhaps we’ll see a Fury-Joshua, a Fury-Wilder or a Fury-Povetkin in the near future. I’m excited by heavyweight possibilities again!
Hmm I had it 8-4 for Cotto.
But watching the replays in between rounds – we knew who was going to win on points. He is an HBO fighter. Politics are Politics.
Too bad Canelo wont fight GGG.
I totally agree. I honestly thought Cotto clearly won it with more point scoring and busier work rate overall. Canelo wasnt busy enough in my opinion. I had Cotto 7-5.
Of course they were going to give it to him though as you said-the wide scores were ridiculous
“too bad Canelo wont fight GGG” facepalm. Canelo said he’d fight GGG right then and there idiot, and oh you thought cotto won the fight LMAO HAHAHA yea dude totally.
more than be a hbo fighter, i think that in this case Cotto payd the fact he didn’t give 300.000 $ to the wbc! Anyway, i’m a fan of both canelo and cotto, the fight was close but i usually prefer the aggressor, so canelo won for 1 or 2 points.
About Golovkin vs Canelo, i think GGG is the real #1 and Alvarez will lose.
Hmm I had not thought about that danielsan. (the 300K) It may explain the totally ridiculous scoring!
This fight was drawish I saw no real winner slight edge to Cotto actually
although I picked Canelo from the beginning when i heard the fight .
Canelo looked slow and flat footed like Mayweather fight Lara fight
and even Trout fight. Un impressed at both fighters GGG would buzz saw
both.
This fight was drawish I saw no winner slight edge to Cotto actually
although I picked Canelo from the beginning when i heard the fight .
Canelo looked slow and flat footed like Mayweather fight Lara fight
and even Trout fight. Un impressed at both fighters GGG would buzz saw
both.
Quite difficult to evaluate the fight due to the extremely low video quality. It should very nice if our host has the possibility to post a good video for our enjoyment since this fight was very important. Anyhow, Canelo was more active and aggressive than Cotto and the fight result I guess fulfill the general expectations. I’m really surprised that reached the 12 rounds being the kind of boxers that these two guys are. Honestly I have Canelo as favorite 7 to 3 before the fight and expecting to watch a knock out but Cotto was very resilient.
we have already posted a new video ;-)
Good quality vid…thanks…
Host you are quite diligent, thank you very much for your fast reply.
Regarding the other pending subject, please take your time but don’t forget to reevaluate Locche vs. Fuji fight :-)
Canelo won, he landed the harder punches, made cotto miss more, was boxing better, cotto started back peddling in the later rounds, even if the scorecards weren’t good, canelo still won.
Canelo won…he was the agressor all night long..props to Cotto though….
Vi ganador a Cotto 115 a 113.Lo boxeo toda la noche,y Alvarez cuando lo encontro,lo castigo con los golpes mas contundentes.Como esto para mi en boxeo,gano el boxeador,que a mi criterio,fue el Boricua.Acepto opiniones diferentes.pero la puntuacion de los jueces.fue y es muy desproporcionada para lo que fue la pelea,Saludos
always judges make mistakes…..cotto win 4 me…
I got 115-113 Cotto (Could be either way). Kinda Awful scorecards.
Yeah, awful. I posted them above. I had Canelo 116-112, but I favor the guy who advances toward the other.
good fight. very technical with intelligent aggression from both. i had it a draw 66 or 7-5 cannel or motto debatable. but the judges scores wee very wrong that we all agree with. anyway nice t see two good guys bring out nice performances and good game plans.
Nice fight but I was so amped up that I would have liked something more spectacular! I agree Canelo won but the scorecards were ridiculous, it was much closer than that.
I’m back!… and I voted up your comment (as ever). ;)
Cool! And the great novels are back lol :D
No way this was close cotto came to survive
I watched the fight live in my livingroom with my girlfriend in Montreal. I say that because while I was watching it, I was also talking with a friend in L.A. at the same time. Everytime Alvarez was throwing a punch, I could hear the whole city of L.A. roaring… even though I had the impression that most of his shots ended up on Cotto’s glove. I had the fight 115-113 Alvarez, which is a mile away from what the judges scored. Were they biased? Were they bribed? I don’t know. My friend in L.A., just like them, only gave 3-4 rounds to Cotto. Still, I thought Cotto did exactly what he needed to do against the much bigger Alvarez. That is, to use his whole boxing brain, to use his footwork, to move his head a lot, to be the quicker man in the ring, to move back and forth using lots of jabs… and boy did that jab worked well for him. But the judges didn’t see it that way. I gave to Cotto most of the rounds in the first half of the fight, but after that, Alvarez (unlike he usually does) started to be more active and to throw more punches in combinations. Could have been a draw, maybe. In fact, after 10 rounds, they were even on my scorecard. My friend had a very different picture and his appreciation was based on the fact that Alvarez’s shots were heavier. That’s for sure! The man is simply bigger! I mean… if that’s the only thing you want to look at, the fight was settled right after the weight-in! Then, I took a look at the compubox numbers and was very surprised to find out that Canelo threw and landed (%) that many shots. I really felt like Cotto was controlling the pace of the fight in most aspects.
Anyway, what’s next? Canelo will fight Golovkin (at 160 lbs I hope, ’cause I’m really sick of all these catchweights) and will probably be destroyed. On the other side, Cotto should consider retirement. He fought so many wars in the past, he had an amazing career at 147 but he’s not a “real” 154lbs-er.
And may I add… at least 3 or 4 low blows from Canelo should have required an intervention for Robert Byrd.
Your girlfriend is pretty nice to let you watch the fights! :)
Isn’t she? ;)
She doesn’t like boxing much, but since she saw MMA for the first time last week, when they showed Ronda Rousey getting KOd on the news…. I think she likes boxing much more! :)
The scorecard. Base purses were 5M$ Alvarez and 15M$ Cotto, but gains were certainly higher because of PPV %.
The judging was way off, i had it 7 – 5 for Canelo. I have no idea how could a judge give Canelo 11 rounds. Even the Mexican television which is clearly biased gave more rounds to cotto, Oscar also said that he thought the fight was closer. Let’s see Canelo vs GGG it’ll be a tremendous fight.
i still think Cotto won this fight. He look quicker boxed better got off more and was defensive enough. I think Cotto was slighted eventhough I picked Canelo on TKO stoppage initially Canello could lightened up carried less bulk in the fight. I watched 12rd again Canelo really won it on that 12rd. There goes boxing again. Gotta see a GGG vas Canelo fight. COtto could fight on maybe see Bradley or Broner or PacMan rematch woould be nice.