Miguel Cotto crushes Delvin Rodriguez with third round knockout

After suffering from twin losses at the hands of Floyd Mayweather and Austin Trout, Miguel Cotto barged his way back into the win column with a dominant third round stoppage win over Delvin Rodriguez at the Amway Center in Orlando, Florida, Saturday (Sunday, PHL time).

Cotto, who now trains out of Freddie Roach’s Wild Card Boxing Gym, dominated the short fight. He hurt Rodriguez early in the third round and the referee stepped in to stop the fight. The official time was 18 seconds into the third round.

“I just want to make myself happy and make everybody happy and get a victory. That's all it was,” Cotto said afterwards. “It feels great to bring it back to basic and bring it back to the roots. Next is rest and we'll see what happens from there.”

Most observers at ringside including ESPN’s Dan Rafael and Yahoo’s Kevin Iole noticed that Cotto was back to his old self. He tried to be more of a boxer in his last two fights, which really didn’t work for him. Against Rodriguez, Cotto went back to his brutal body attacks.

Photo: @RealMiguelCotto greets @DRodriguez1980 with a hug. pic.twitter.com/JsdNAQRFGn

— Top Rank Boxing (@trboxing) October 6, 2013

"It was a great performance. Anyone who wants to fight off the ropes with a guy like Miguel, it's just a matter of time,” said Roach, who was in the opposite corner when Cotto fought Manny Pacquiao. “The body shots broke him [Rodriguez] down, and the head shot knocked him out.”

Roach also had some help from Filipino trainer Marvin Somodio of Baguio’s Shape-Up Boxing Gym as the diminutive trainer was Roach’s main assistant with Cotto. “He worked so hard,” Roach added about Cotto. “He put the hours in. I'm very happy to be here with him.”

With the win, Cotto raised his record to 38 wins against four losses with 31 of his wins coming by way of knockout. Rodriguez’s record fell to 28 wins with seven losses and three draws.

Cotto hurt Rodriguez early with left hooks to the body. The Dominican Republic native tried to keep the Puerto Rican away with jabs, but he could not land them regularly. Cotto wobbled Rodriguez late in the second round with a big left to the body. Sensing blood in the water, he then went in for the kill early in the third. He landed a hook-straight combination followed by another big left hook, which floored Rodriguez. Referee Frank Santore Jr. then stopped the fight as Rodriguez was in no shape to continue.

"He caught me with the left hook and I really felt the power," said Rodriguez, who also said that the stoppage was early.

Photo: @DRodriguez1980 at the post-fight press conference. "I was excited to be on such big event." pic.twitter.com/XZS282aWNn

— Top Rank Boxing (@trboxing) October 6, 2013

Earlier in the undercard, Terrence Crawford bested Andrey Klimov in a battle of undefeated fighters. Crawford raised his tally to 22 wins without a loss with 16 knockouts with a unanimous decision victory over Klimov. Even if the two were both undefeated prior to their bout, the difference in their skill was obvious with Crawford scoring a shutout 110-90 on all scorecards. Klimov suffered his first professional defeat in 17 fights. - CLP, GMA News