Cuevas by KO. This fight would be a war, and in that war I have much more faith in Cuevas taking Cotto's power than I do of Cotto taking Pipino's. Cotto is the more skilled and overall better of the two, but his lack of defense, and lack of a great chin are BAAAAD news against Pipino. Cuevas KO 5.
Cuevas KO4. Miguel just gets hit too clean, too often. In this matchup of defensively challenged punchers, I'll go with the big, stronger, heavier handed guy.
Cotto wins the first 2-3 rounds, and then Cuevas eventually hits him a cracking left hook, forces a war which would immediately give the advantage to Cuevas as he is more durable and has much better punching power then Cotto. I think Cuevas takes him out in 5 rounds.
Cotto a better boxer and technician, but like you guys said, he gets hit too easily with clean shots and he favors his left hook a lot and thats bad news against a guy who throws bone-breaking hooks of his own and who, when he could land consistently, really believed in his power a lot be a terrific fight while it lasted, but Cotto gets knocked out
Cuevas did not beat one single quality fighter ever. All of his better foes kicked the shit out of him. I can't comprehend the hype surrounding him, he was a crude caveman, with mediocre chin, and his amazing ko power curiously only worked against much inferior opponents than Miguel (though he lost against some of them). Cotto in an easy fight by mid round KO.
Angel Espada, Randy Shields, Harold Weston, Pete Ranzany, Miguel Campanino were all solid welterweight contenders... It wasnt the greatest cast of challengers, but none of those guys there were bad fighters, and with the exception of Shields, he pretty much annihlated them Cotto's comp at welterweight is only a little better and its hardly been easy for him... I dont see how Cotto is so good as to be above Cuevas's reach (at least Cuevas who was the champion)
Actually good analogy, IMO Cuevas was a similar level fighter to Torres. Just for some reason Cuevas is deemed as a legendary puncher. Both had some nice highlight reel KOs against bums, but their fearsome punch didn't really work against the better fighters. Also, IMO Cotto has not yet reached his prime in the Torres fight, he improved a lot after that, so i'm not sure this fight would go similarly. I don't think the Cuevas who lost nearly everybody was that much different fighter. He just fought better competition. The challengers during his reign were nothing special, probably similar in class to Quintana or Urkal. Beating Cotto is entirely a different thing, imo the talent gap would be too wide, and Cuevas's punch is overrated. Not to mention Cuevas didn't have the sturdiest chin either, and Cotto is much more accurate puncher than he was.
Cuevas is not an overrated puncher. The one thing that is clearly not overrated about him is his punch... he hit like a ton of bricks with that left hand... that left hand alone was what made him a champion with 11 defenses, 10 of them by KO, in the face of otherwise completely ordinary skills and talents... He was CLEARLY a better fighter than Torres, come on now, thats just not honest... And outside of Mosely (who was on the downside anyway) how are Cotto's welterweight challengers any better than Cuevas's? And like I said, Cuevas wasnt struggling against these guys, he was running them over... Cottos has had trouble against the same level of opponent that Pipino was steamrolling Cotto does not have the greatest chin and he gets hit a lot especially when he is in there with guys he thinks he can LAND a lot against... he would certainly think so against Pipino and I think it would be his undoing
Absolutely not true. Cuevas' title fight victims, while not spectacular, were mostly a pretty solid bunch.
"Probably?" If you were more familiar with the men CDogg mentioned, you would know if they were or weren't similar in class to Quintana or Urkal, as you would know Cuevas did beat quite solid, quality opponents at times. Cotto has anything but an easy night with Cuevas, win or lose.
"Probably" might be a bad choice of word, english is not my native language, so expressing precisely what i want to say is kinda difficult to me. I meant to say i think they are in similar class, but i cannot be 100% sure as they cannot fight with eachother, so i can only state my opinion (as we all in mythical matchups). In my opinion all of them were definitely lower tier fighter than Cotto, so beating them doesn't exactly prove that he would be successful in this fight. Don't forget that Cuevas lost to all his elite opponents, and i disagree the notion that it was because he was done after the Hearns fight. He stepped up in the competition, and that finally did show his limitations. In my opinion Cotto could easily outbox him and wear him down before Cuevas would knock him out. Of course Cotto's chin is not indestructible, and Cuevas has some puncher's chance, but totally dismissing Cotto's chances, like everyone else is doing in this thread is something i do not agree with.
