Miguel Cotto Wins WBO Junior Middleweight Title, Wants Canelo vs. GGG Winner Next
After nearly two years, the Miguel Cotto retirement tour has begun and it started off with another world title win.
On the same night as the Floyd Mayweather vs. Conor McGregor megafight, Cotto had one of his best performances in recent memory by beating Yoshihiro Kamegai in an HBO-televised card. Cotto defeated Kamegai via unanimous decision (120-108, 118-110, 119-109) to win the vacant WBO junior middleweight title.
Cotto showed exceptional offense skill in the blowout win, setting career records in total punches thrown and power punches thrown in a fight, according to CompuBox. CompuBox also said Cotto tied a career-high when he landed 251 power punches on Kamegai. More than 300 of the 839 punches thrown to Kamegai landed on Kamegai’s head.
The Puerto Rican superstar has insisted that he will retire come December 31 but still wants one more fight. As for who Cotto would like to fight, Cotto’s trainer Freddie Roach answered that question.
“We want the winner of Canelo-GGG,” Roach said.
Cotto is a former middleweight world champion but lost to Canelo Alvarez in 2015 with the middleweight title on the line. There were also rumors of a potential December fight between Cotto and David Lemieux in New York at the end of the year.
Also on the HBO card was WBC super bantamweight champion Rey Vargas defending his title against Ronny Rios. Vargas defeated Rios via unanimous decision (118-110, 118-110, 115-113) to retain his title.
