CRUNCH TIME FOR
MIGUEL COTTO
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By Carlos Guzman
FightBeat.com CEO

It’s crunch time for Miguel Cotto!

In just a few days Miguel will make his third appearance in 2005. He fights on the HBO Boxing After Dark undercard in Atlantic City against relatively unknown mandatory contender Ricardo Torres. 

When it’s “crunch time,” you go to the Crunch Gym on 38^th street in Manhattan. It’s one of the few gyms in the city with an actual ring.

About 1:15 and Cotto comes in to the gym. When Cotto walks in a room his eyes are cold, and his concentration meter red-lines. Watching him lace-up is like seeing a hitman prepare for work. He walks around with invisible blinders, his focus, straight ahead, on the target.  Cotto would look at home in Madame Toussant’s Wax Museum.

When he does look up at the crowd, he looks a bit perplexed, probably asking himself “Why are these people here. Can’t they see I have to work”? For the undefeated Puerto Rican star, it’s all business.

When I spoke to him, my head kept ringing “Who the hell is Torres?” Miguel filled in the picture. “He’s a Columbian boxer, very strong; we will have to make a great fight to win,”.

In a short period, Cotto's defeated some of the best fighters in the world. I asked him if this guy Torres is a step back or a rest from his frantic pace? Miguel would have none of it.

“This guy has 28 wins, 26 by KO, there is no rest here. We will work tirelessly until we get the win.”

Torres does have a victory over Cotto’s fellow countryman Edwin Vazquez, and on his home turf of Hato Rey, Puerto Rico. Unfortunately Cotto wasn’t able to make the fight to see Torres first hand.

The first time I saw Cotto in action was this past June at Madison Sqaure Garden. Cotto is so popular in NY that this was the first ever Boxing After Dark card to take place in the main room. He faced his arch-nemeses Miguel Abdullaev in the main event.  Abdullaev is a very strong, pressure fighter, and beat Cotto in the Olympics. Cotto was looking for payback. He did one better. Not only did he beat Abdullaev, he made him quit. Abdullaev’s eye was swollen shut, and even through the post-fight conference he had an ice bag over his eye and was in terrible pain.

Everyone was quick to praise Cotto for an excellent performance, but I was upset that he let the right hand come in too often. He kept laying on the ropes too! Miguel shrugged it off.

“Everyone saw that it was an excellent performance, it was a great battle. I beat him constantly throughout every round until finally he yielded to me.”

Damn, I guess I’m out as his trainer.

Before I let him get to work, I wanted to know what’s the scale reading today. Apparently it’s a guarded secret.

“We’ll have to wait and see after I do my work,” he answered, a polite way of saying, "NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS".  “Come fight time, everyone will see my weight.”

While Cotto quietly made his way to the treadmill, local fan favorite Paul Malignaggi was on the scene. From a distance it looked like Paul had his hands wrapped, willing to go a few rounds with the champ. A closer inspection revealed it was a cast. Rumor has it that Paulie will never fight again, but he still seems quiet interested in Cotto. Maybe a little time off, and Paulie can pursue his dream of a showdown with Cotto.

Watch the home page tomorrow for the Miguel Cotto Workout video. Always free, only on FightBeat.com.

Cotto versus Ricardo Torres is this Saturday night on HBO (Saturday, September 24, 10PM ET/PT, from Atlantic City). The card also includes Wladimir Klitschko versus Samuel Peter in the main event.