Brown stops him late. Simon would do the same thing Margarita did, only Simon was quicker n more powerful than Marg... w/o the need of plaster hand wraps. Cotto would outbox him early, but I see Simon's body attack and strength wearing Cotto down, and around the 9th or 10th.. Brown stops him.
No way does Simon keep Cotto on his back foot for ten rounds. And even if he did somehow, he wouldn't stand up to the shots Cotto unloaded every time he stopped moving and planted his feet. And by "stand up" I mean continue to push Cotto back and make him fight off his back foot.
Why not? Brown was exremely strong, and he was a better technician than given credit for. Forget the McGirt fight... Simon was on the downside by then. The late 80's Brown was an excellent offensive techncian with skills, toughness, and a lethal left hook that I cant see Cotto's chin handling. Simon Brown is underrated nowadays.
Maybe he is but I can't see him backing Cotto up which is what you have to do to beat him. And Cotto has a good chin that he keeps well-tucked. He hardly ever gets hit with left-hooks. Because it's such a major weapon of his, he's very defensive minded when he throws it. You'll see his right arm is always blocking his chin as he throws it. It'd be a good fight. But I don't think Brown wins it. And if he did, it wouldn't be by knock-out IMO.
Cotto has never faced a puncher like Brown. Even w/his illegal wraps.. Marg STILL didnt hit as hard as Brown. Brown is a top 5 welterweight puncher in the last 25 years IMO.
Don't know if I'd put Simon in the top 5 punchers at welterweight in the past 25 years. But the dude had serious power, a granite chin and strong as hell. His endurance was serious worldclass. I'd take Brown by late round stoppage over the Cotto we have seen up til now.
I don't see how you can make this statement with any confidence. I've seen Cotto take clean shots on the chin from Bailey, Judah, Margarito (with plaster in his gloves), Quintana, Mosley, Abdulaev, Kelson Pinto, Sosa, Bazan, and not lose a step. I seriously doubt Brown would knock Cotto out. The only reason Margarito did was because he absolutely beat his guts out with loaded gloves. Heck. When the fight was stopped Cotto hadn't even been hit. He just fell on the deck from exhaustion. Brown took 10 rounds to beat Blocker. Tito stopped in what, one round? He couldn't stop Santana. He went the distance with plenty of average fighters. Maybe he beats Cotto. But no way did he hit harder than Tito did at 147.
My bad. I thought you'd said hardest welterweight puncher in last 25 years. Didn't see the "top 5" part.
Brown was heavy handed, but his punch is ridiculously overrated top 5 147 puncher since 1984??? not a chance
Trinidad, Quartey, Curry, Mark Breland all did for sure... Jose Luis Lopez hit just as hard, Oscar De La Hoya did too (we had a huge argument about this years ago::) ... shit, Tyrone Trice hit harder, in my opinion Brown was almost always an accumulation puncher... he was strong and tough and heavy handed, but he was never a one-shot guy
I've never thought of Brown as a "big puncher". He struck me as heavy-handed and each punch was usually solid...but he wasn't a one punch bomber type. To me...more of an Evander Holyfield than a Mike Tyson.
