Cotto tries a lighter touch
Middleweight is less angry, more focused as he prepares for bout against Alvarez.
LAS VEGAS — Tacked on the walls of Hollywood’s Wild Card Boxing Club are photos of Miguel Cotto smiling.
That’s a big change from his public persona.
It takes time for Cotto, seen by many as difficult, surly and reclusive, to reveal a deep reservoir of drive, resilience and happiness.
Now, three victories into Cotto’s union with Wild Card’s famed trainer Freddie Roach, the four-division world champion from Puerto Rico has transformed his mood and talents.
Cotto, 35, will meet Mexico’s popular former junior middle weight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, 25, in a much anticipated middleweight bout Saturday night at Mandalay Bay.
“A much nicer person than what we thought at one time,” said Roach, who prepared his best-known fighter, Manny Pacquiao, for a 2009 date against Cotto and encountered an angry opponent.
Fresh in Cotto’s mind when the fighters weighed in six years ago was Roach’s insistence that the bout be fought at an uncomfortable 145-pound catchweight and the trainer’s derogatory comments toward Joe Santiago, Cotto’s trainer at the time.
“He was always trying to kill himself making weight — I know how that is from
when I fought — miserable to be around, not eating for days, drinking water, becoming bulimic,” Roach said.
During that weigh-in, Cotto and Roach brushed each other.
“What are you going to do?” Cotto growled.
“I’m right here,” Roach answered before a third party intervened.
Pacquiao stopped Cotto with a 12th-round technical knockout.
Then, after Cotto lost a lopsided decision to Austin Trout in 2012 that left him mulling retirement, he coldcalled Roach the next summer.
“Freddie, I think I have about three fights left in me, do you think you can help me?” Cotto said.
“Of course I can,” Roach answered.
Said the trainer: “The easiest thing was take the things I had Pacquiao do to beat him and turn it around — make him box more, put him lighter on his feet. He’s a good boxer when he wants to be. When he wants to sit down and punch and knock you out, if he stays there for more than one punch, he’s going to get hit back. And I don’t want that.”
With Roach, Cotto is 3-0 with three stoppages, winning a World Boxing Council middleweight belt he was stripped of this week for declining to pay $300,000 in sanctioning fees.
Cotto contends that he doesn’t need a belt to make a big fight, a belief emboldened by the lucrative deal he signed with rapper Jay Z’s Roc Nation Sports, which will pay him more than $10 million for the bout against Alvarez.
The reasons to smile go beyond that, however.
“As soon as I got to L.A., I put more discipline into myself and things run better for us,” Cotto said. “I have no doubt that what we’ve done in seven weeks in L.A. is going to be the key to victory. We are going to apply our plan the best way possible.”
Cotto’s comfort brought the smiles — and Roach gathered various photos proving it — to refute perceptions of the fighter’s demeanor.
Roach said Cotto’s conditioning is paramount. The fighter showed up each morning at 5 at Wild Card and Roach backed the veteran off heavy running, limiting him to one day a week while incorporating the stationary bicycle and other methods inside the gym to boost his fitness.
“This routine made me look like I did the last fight [a fourth-round technical knockout of Daniel Geale in June], and [it’s] the same for this one,” Cotto said. “I have no doubt we’ll do our best.”
With the power of Alvarez (45-1-1, 32 knockouts) at play, Cotto (40-4, 33 KOs) will work to avoid the heavy punches that he absorbed in losses to Antonio Margarito and Pacquiao.
He argues that any lingering damage from those defeats is a non-issue compared to the ring smarts he has gained in the years since, particularly those learned through Roach.
“Do you think by watching my last three fights, somebody has to be worried about myself? Nah, I’m having the best time in my career,” Cotto said. “I know this fight’s going to be just another fight for us.”
Roach similarly was so enthused after observing Cotto’s final workout session Wednesday that he told a reporter, “We’re gonna kill [Alvarez],” adding that he has at least a four-figure bet on his fighter, a 3-1 underdog.
“This fight, we’re going to box a lot,” Roach said. “We’re not just looking for a knockout. I want him using his foot speed, his angles. He’s a more complete fighter than ever.
“I’m not [Alvarez’s] biggest fan. His defense is ter- rible. He follows you wherever you go, sits there like a robot. If you use angles on him, he’ll be lost.”
Cotto said the fight will reflect the progress he’s made, telling reporters that he expects one more fight after Alvarez.
“The maturity in me is bigger,” he said. “Now I can handle myself better, have more discipline. I train myself to show my performance is better to Freddie, every day and every week. That’s what we had in mind: a battle with myself. I have enough time to think about Canelo on Saturday, and that’s the only time I’m going to think about him.”
Roach envisions a dream scenario of a knockout victory by Cotto, followed by his fighter’s post-fight call-out to summon unbeaten Floyd Mayweather Jr. from retirement for a rematch of Mayweather’s hard-fought 2012 decision over Cotto.
After the sour experience of Pacquiao’s loss to Mayweather in May, Roach contends that Cotto can achieve a measure of revenge.
“He always tells me, ‘Freddie, if I had you in my corner when I fought him, I would’ve knocked him out,’” Roach said. “Miguel could pull off the strategy I had for Manny.”
Said Cotto: “I don’t know what [Mayweather’s] going to do — if his retirement is serious or not — but I’m here to fight and if he decides to come back, I’m here.”
And this time, if Cotto were to beat Alvarez, there would be a grin too.