awesome fight. two crafty offensive fighters. cotto's got the better combinations and body punching. tszyu has the better right hand. shit. who wins?
late in his tenure there he was, but early on he seemed quite durable. he took Bailey's best shot, and Abdullaev's too. and although N'dou is no banger, he certainly put some leather on that Cotto was able to absorb. i'm not saying tszyu doesn't win, but i just think he could do it weight drained or not. not sure.
bailey sucks (has he KOed anyone noteworthy?), abdulaev is mediocre (as a pro), and n'dou is a loser. i thought n'dou gave cotto a very tough fight although he lost 8 rounds or so. cotto at that point in his career was too green for tszyu. the weight drained version that fight torres would've gotten his head knocked off by tszyu imo.
well it's not about how good abdullaev or bailey are. it's about how hard they hit, and the fact that they both connected squarly to cotto's chin with little effect. that's evidence that at least for a portion of his reign at 140, Cotto was a durable guy. also, don't forget, as hurt as he was by Torres, he never did go down (legitimately), nor did he go down against Corley. the guy is a truck. Torres had him out on his feet and was unloading the kitchen sink on him and cotto went no where. Tszyu would have his hands full, isn't good on the inside, and would certainly feel the wrath of cotto's body assault. imo, tszyu wins only if he's able to blind cotto with his left and land that laser right of his square on the chin. other than that, i think cotto out-guts him.
hard to pick Cotto after seeing him in trouble so often from a right hand Cotto would also leave a perfect distance for Tszyu don't see anything in Cotto's favour here at all :dunno: ________ UNIVERSAL HEALTH WAREHOUSE
Great match-up, fireworks for sure... But I tend to agree with the general consensus that eventually (I think later in the fight), a prime Tszyu stops a maturing Cotto... Cotto is vulnerable to the right; though he's made adjustments for that lately... But Tszyu is a crafty master at delivering it consistently and walking fighters into it - and I think he could match Cotto strength-for-strength. YOu can't ignore Tszyu's uppercuts inside either or his firm jab when he wants to use it. Cotto is also a selective accurate puncher - not a swarmer or high-volume fighter who will trade punch-for-punch with Tszyu and eventually overwhelm him...and that's critical to understand. Tszyu suffers in this one; no doubt....but I think eventually he hurts Cotto enough to get the fight stopped late. Peace.
