Cotto vows to show mature approach against Martinez

Miguel Cotto at 33-years-old is not in his prime anymore. His body bears the brunt of 13-years of professional fighting, including epic bouts against Antonio Margarito and Manny Pacquiao. But with the quality of training he gets from Freddie Roach, Cotto promises to look like his old self when he fights Sergio Martinez for the WBC world middleweight title at the Madison Square Garden in New York on June 7 (June 8, PHL time).

This time around he says, he will have a more mature approach in fighting.

"You are going to see the same guy that started his career [13 years ago, maybe a little older, more mature, and more focused on what I need to do. I think you are going to see that version," said Cotto.

"I am the same fighter that I have always been. Freddie [Roach] has worked with me for what I need to do and whatever needs to be done in the ring, Freddie has a plan for it and all I have to do is follow it. I will just listen to my corner. All the work I have put in, in Los Angeles, in the past nine weeks are going to pay off on fight night."

Cotto biting off more than he can chew as he moves to his fourth weight class has been brought up over and over again. Martinez has the obvious size advantage, but Cotto feels that he can bring his punching power to middleweight and even thinks he's punching harder than before. There also came a point in training when Roach was pissing blood due to Cotto's punishing body blows.

"Miguel is one of the hardest punchers I have worked with. We are working every day on the mitts with my body protector on and that doesn’t help that much any more. Miguel goes right through that," says Roach. "His punching power is great, his speed has been good and everything is right where I want it to be. Miguel is one of the hardest workers I have been with and he is the most disciplined fighter I have ever worked with."

The world title fight is at a contracted catchweight of 159 pounds. Cotto claims that the offer came from the opposing team, specifically from promoter Sampson Lewkowicz of Sampson Boxing, citing that Martinez can no longer run the way he did after suffering knee injuries in the past and that his fighter Martinez wants to make weight.

Martinez has been very verbal of his plans, reiterating over and over in the past few weeks that Cotto won't see the final bell. As for Cotto and Roach, they're ready to go to war for 12 rounds and do not want to hear excuses after.

"I train for twelve hard rounds, I train for twelve rounds of war. If he only trains for seven or eight he is going to be in trouble after that because I am prepared to go the whole distance and to do whatever it takes to win," said Cotto. "All my career I have never been concerned with my opponent. I am always concerned about what I need to do, what I have to do. The biggest rival in my career has always been myself. I have to stay focused. I have to stay ready. I just have to follow the plan and everything will work out and I will have the victory."

"If he is not mobile then we will catch him a lot earlier than later and it is just a matter of time. We plan for Sergio to be at his best and we will beat him at his best," answered Roach when asked if he thinks Martinez will be as mobile as he used to be in his past fights. "I don’t want to hear after the fight ‘my knee hurts.’ He’s going into the fight, he signed for the fight, he knows what he’s up against." - AMD, GMA News


JM Siasat is a sports journalist based in Manila, Philippines. He can be reached at jmsiasat@ymail.com. Follow him on Twitter @jmsiasat