Miguel Cotto : Thinking Clottey not Pacquiao

  Poise is a term reserved for those boxers that can maintain that same focused mind set no matter how promising or how dire the situation. These are the special fighters that understand the job at hand and are willing to go through hell to get their mission accomplished. It is easy to write and talk about toughness , but it is another thing to actually live it.

  However the most poised professionals are given to suffer the occassional hiccup from time to time. Miguel Cotto's hiccup came last July against Antonio Margarito. After controlling the early rounds Cotto found that he could not keep the Tijuana Tornado from advancing. Just like a real tornado , Margarito took everything Cotto could throw at him and continued to roll . Margarito didn't stop until Cotto was ready to quit. Cotto took a knee for the second knockdown of round eleven and was promptly saved by his corner from further punishment. For the first time in his career he had faced an immovable object that he could not move.

  Move forward ten months and Miguel is set to face another man that is very similar to Margarito. On June 13 Cotto is set to square off against rugged Ghana fighter Joshua Clottey.  Clottey is currently the fourth ranked welterweight according to Ring magazine.  He stopped Zab Judah last August but earned his reputation when he injured both hands in a decision loss to Margarito in 2006. Clottey was still willing to stand in front of Margarito until the final bell. Read between the lines and what you have in Clottey is very similar to what you find in Margarito.

  While the hand wrap scandal of the Mosley fight has raised questions about Margarito the one thing that can't be forgotten is how often Cotto landed huge bombs that had little or no effect on Antonio. This is probably the biggest reason for the loss of composure on Miguel's part on that night. Is Clottey's chin made of the same steel that Margarito's is? We'll have to wait and see , but Cotto knows the type of fighter he is facing. He has been there before and should be better prepared to go to a plan B should plan A prove ineffective. Gone is trainer / uncle Evangelista Cotto. After an ugly incident Miguel decided to fire his uncle. Will this be an advantage or put Miguel at a disadvantage? The Cotto-Cotto system was very succesful , but had no answers on that night last summer.

  As if the training camp situation wasn't enough of a distaction now comes word that the Pacquiao people may be at Madison Square Garden on the night of the fight. Team Pacquiao has made references to the media that Cotto may be the opponent of choice should the Mayweather-Marquez winner not be available to fight in late fall. This is another read between the line , should that winner want too much of the purse. Pacquiao- Cotto would be a mega fight and would be highly entertaining.

  And we come full circle. The pride of Puerto Rico once again shows that poise , only this time outside of the ring. The soft spoken boxer recently said a Pacquiao fight would be big , but his only concern and focus is on Joshua Clottey. We've seen other fighters say this only to look past an opponent and lose , thus throwing away a major fight and a major payday. Yet there is something in Cotto that tells us that this is a man of his word and we can believe what he says. How far has Miguel Cotto come from that night last summer? We'll find out on June 13 and then perhaps dreams of Pacquiao can fill Cotto's head. As of right now he remains poised to take on Joshua Clottey in a major test that will definitely show us how much composure and resolve he has left.