Joe Latti
Brick City Boxing

BROOKLYN, NY – New York City is set to celebrate its annual Puerto Rican Day parade and festivities, and what better way to kick them off than by Jay Z’s Roc Nation Sports hosting a Miguel Cotto fight in Brooklyn.  The Barclays Center was filled with Cotto fans and Puerto Rican flags waved proudly throughout the arena.  Australian Daniel Geale may not have been aware of the popularity of Miguel Cotto in New York City when he signed the contract, but he was about to find out. Cotto has a career record of 10-1 with 6 knockouts when fighting in New York City. Geale has only fought in the United States on two previous occasions, his first being a split decision loss to Darren Barker, while the other a was third round TKO loss to Gennady Golovkin at Madison Square Garden.

Cotto opted to enter the ring with no music, intending to send the same message he did against Sergio Martinez last year – Cotto is here for business.  Geale came into the night a staggering 182 lbs, which is 25 lbs heavier than what he weighed in at yesterday.  The first two rounds moved at an average pace, both boxers felt each other out and Cotto landed the majority of the punches by using left hooks to the head and body.  Geale started to open up a little more in round three, pushing the pace and moving towards Cotto more than the previous two rounds.  The punch stats seemed even until Cotto pulled off a nice flurry of punches to close out the round, leading two out of three judges to give Cotto the win for round three.

Cotto decided to step up and take control by landing a massive left hook to drop Geale thirty seconds into round four.  The assault continued from Cotto as he dropped Geale a second time, leading Geale to refuse to continue when asked by referee Harvey Dock with 1:28 left in the round.  Cotto was awarded with a TKO victory bringing his record up to 40-4, with 33 knockouts.

What’s next for Miguel Cotto?  Several names have been mentioned such as Gennady Golovkin, or even a re-match with Floyd Mayweather Jr.  However, the majority of the boxing community believes this big win leads us to see a match-up with Canelo Alvarez (45-1, 32 KO), in what could be a pay-per-view fight and a definite must see event.  Time will tell what the future holds for Miguel Cotto, but even at the age of 34 it seems we are seeing some of his best work.

Undercard:

Fernando Vargas def. Wilfredo Vasquez Jr. by UD
Zhang Zhilei def. Glen Thomas by UD
Junior Younan def. Mike Sawyer by TKO
Dustin Fleischer def. Kareem Milner by TKO
Angel Luna def. Jose Lopez by UD
Shawn Simpson def. Damon Simon by TKO