Cotto forces Mayorga to quit in 12th -- ESPN

By Kieran Mulvaney, ESPN

LAS VEGAS -- Ricardo Mayorga, true to form, was going nuts.

He stood in the corner of the ring, pointed to the canvas just in front of him and yelled at Miguel Cotto to stand on that spot and trade punches. Cotto paused, waited his time, then moved in, unleashed a flurry, and slipped back out of range. Again, Mayorga erupted. Again, Cotto repeated his move. By the time the sequence was over, Mayorga had three times exhorted his foe to engage him; three times the Puerto Rican champion had answered the challenge on his own terms, had inflicted damage as desired, avoided return fire as required, and ultimately put another round in the bank.

Over the past several years, Cotto has fought a more consistently high level of opposition than perhaps any other fighter; he has, as a consequence, suffered the wear and tear of ring wars, even on those occasions when he has emerged triumphant. With the prospect looming of a summer rematch with Antonio Margarito, one of the two men most responsible for inflicting that wear and tear, he was easily forgiven a relatively soft touch in the interim. But as soft touches go, Mayorga was potentially as hard as they come. Sure, he was faded, years removed from his last significant victory. Granted, he was crude -- in his boxing style as well as in his sometimes boorish mannerisms. But the man could flat out punch, and the unorthodox awkwardness with which he threw his punches made it all the more likely that one or more of those hard punches might find a home.

And certainly, Mayorga had his moments, none more so than in the seventh round, when he threw punch after punch in his trademark fashion, not in combination with each blow setting up the next, but one after the other, winged onward in the hope of success. Enough of them landed that Cotto, for the first time in the fight, began to ship some punishment and exhibit the first true signs of possible vulnerability.

But the exertion appeared to have taken a greater toll on the puncher than the punched. By the next round, Cotto was once more in control, the position in which he found himself for the great majority of his fight. His defense -- right hand held high, head and shoulders shifted just enough to evade the worst of the incoming artillery -- combined with a patiently constructed offense to ensure that Cotto won eight of 11 rounds on all three official scorecards entering the final frame.

Then, just as it appeared the bout would conclude with a wide unanimous decision, a left hook exploded on Mayorga's jaw, its force magnified by the fact that the Nicaraguan, as is his wont, was winding up to throw a big punch himself. Mayorga staggered backward, held out his hands beseechingly, as if unable to comprehend what was happening to him, and then dropped to one knee. The contest was effectively over at that point, although it would take an extra few seconds, a follow-up fusillade and a capitulation adding the icing and securing the victory.

After his defeat to Margarito in 2008, and even more following his loss to Manny Pacquiao the following year, Cotto seemed damaged goods, a man on whom years of hard fights had finally exacted a punitive toll. In two fights since then under the tutelage of trainer Emanuel Steward, Cotto has appeared an altogether stronger, better-rounded boxer. Of course, neither this version of Mayorga, nor Yuri Foreman -- whom Cotto defeated last year and who was himself a loser on Saturday night posed the stiffest of questions. But he answered them convincingly nonetheless, and now another challenge, surely more personal than the others, awaits.

Margarito may not be the man he once was either, following defeats to Pacquiao and Shane Mosley, to say nothing of the sense that his greatest victories may have been aided in less than legal ways. But in July, Cotto will have the opportunity to use him as a measuring stick by which to gauge his progress under Steward, with which to continue his career resurrection, and through which he can achieve a degree of revenge and redemption in the process.

Yet, however much the fire of vengeance may burn within him, Cotto will assuredly approach that challenge as he did on this night: Calmly, unhurriedly, and on his own terms.

Source: espn.go.com

Legendary Promoters King And Arum Want To Make Mayweather-Pacquiao This Year, King Envisages A Three-Day Music Festival To Accompany The Super-Fight -- Eastside Boxing

By James Slater, Eastside Boxing

Though his many legal issues have still to be resolved before Floyd “Money” Mayweather can even think of boxing again (his court appearance pushed back to April now), the entire boxing world refuses to give up on the idea of one day seeing a mega-fight between he and Manny Pacquiao. Right now, in conjunction with one another, legendary promoters and one-time bitter rivals Don King and Bob Arum are thinking of how they can make the biggest fight in all of boxing today. And if the combined know-how of King AND Arum cannot get the clash made, then forget it!

King has Floyd’s ear; Arum promotes Pac-Man. Working together is now very much a doable thing for the two veterans, too (together, the two put on tonight’s Miguel Cotto-Ricardo Mayorga fight in Las Vegas) and maybe, just maybe, they will be able to pull out all the stops and get this thing on. King, who rose to global fame with the work he did in putting together the heavyweight mega-fight that was 1974’s Muhammad Ali-George Foreman “Rumble in The Jungle,” likes the idea of a three-day musical festival accompanying Pacquiao-Mayweather. As fans know, a musical event accompanied Ali-Foreman, with legends such as James Brown performing free for the fans. King wants today’s musical stars, such as 50-Cent (Floyd’s best buddy!) and Jay-Z to do their thing for this huge boxing occasion.

“Well, there is every possibility, every possibility, if we can get the stars to be a part of it and be a part of the people,” King said to The Manila Times. “We represent the masses not the classes; but we unify the masses and the classes.”

And Arum is also very much hoping the super-fight can be signed, sealed and delivered.

“I firmly wish it would happen,” he said. “If Don and I were promoting that fight, it would be something that would remembered 100 years from now. We would make this entire planet stop. All the wars and all the conflicts in the world - there would at least be a truce.”

Arum isn’t exaggerating. If the two best P-4-P stars on the planet locked horns on a glitzy stage accompanied by the kind of musical festival King envisages, who wouldn’t watch it? More importantly to the two worldly promoters: who wouldn’t PAY to watch it? Mayweather-Pacquiao, Pacquiao-Mayweather; whichever way around you want it - would be staggeringly big. Just like Ali-Foreman, Leonard-Hearns and all the other classics Arum and King have worked on were.

King and Arum together, smiling and doing great business together without any nastiness aimed at the other is a quite amazing thing to see. If these two can be paired together with such lack of ill feeling, surely Manny and Floyd can be persuaded to come together also and sign on for the fight the entire planet wants to see!

Source: eastsideboxing.com