Miguel Cotto ‘listened to the game plan’ to beat Sergio Martinez

NEW YORK // As Freddie Roach recalled, he recently received a phone call from Miguel Cotto, who suggested he had only three fights left.

Judging by his performance on Saturday night, Cotto has plenty left in the tank.

Cotto became the first Puerto Rican fighter to win world championships in four weight divisions, stopping Sergio Martinez in their WBC world middleweight title fight on Saturday night.

“It was a reflection of my hard work (for) 10, 11 weeks,” Cotto said.

Martinez did not get off the stool when the bell rang for the 10th round. He did not speak to the media after the fight, as he was taken to a hospital as a precaution.

“Miguel beat him from pillar to post,” Lou DiBella, Martinez’s promoter, said. “Miguel Cotto is a great champion.”

Cotto improved to 39-4 and is 8-1 at Madison Square Garden. Martinez fell to 51-3-2.

According to Todd duBoef, president of Top Rank, the attendance was 21,090, and the gross gate was under US$5 million (Dh18.3m).

In the week leading up to the fight, Roach, Cotto’s trainer, said his pupil would be able to use his footwork to control the fight, and still possessed power even though he moved up in weight class.

Cotto proved Roach right from the opening bell, knocking down Martinez twice in the first round with a flurry of body shots. As the fight progressed, Cotto pressured Martinez around the ring, and attacked when openings were presented.

Cotto won every round, including a 10-6 first.

“Miguel fought a really great fight,” Roach said. “Thank you, Miguel, for making me look so good.

“He really gave the guy a boxing lesson.”

Martinez forced Cotto to fight in the middle of the ring instead of on the ropes or in the corners. But Cotto was able to land a variety of jabs and hooks. By the end of the eighth round, Martinez had swelling around his right eye. He also had a cut on his forehead due to a head-butt.

Both cuts were glued shut.

Cotto landed 54 per cent of his punches, and 54 per cent of his power punches. By comparison, Martinez connected on 31 percent of his punches, and landed 60 of 157 power punches.

“Martinez couldn’t hurt him,” Roach said. “Miguel listened to the game plan.”

The Cotto-Martinez fight was the main event of a nine-fight card.

Marvin Sonsona (19-1-1) became the NABF featherweight champion with a 10-round split decision win over Wilfredo Vasquez Jr (23-4-1).

“He’s a dirty, rotten fighter,” Vasquez said. “When I pressured him, he held. He landed one good punch, the punch that knocked me down.”

Javier Maciel (29-3) won the USNBC super welterweight title, defeating Jorge Melendez (28-4-1) by split decision, and Andy Lee (32-2) stopped John Jackson (18-2) with a left hook in the fifth round.

“I ran into a bad one,” Jackson said. “What a lucky punch.”

Prior to the main card bouts, Felix Verdejo improved to 13-0 with a first-round technical knockout of Engelberto Valenzuela (9-2); and Jose Lopez (13-0) won an eight-round unanimous decision over Raul Hidalgo (21-11-0-1) to retain the WBC super bantam FECARBOX title.

Jose Pedraza moved to 17-0 with a first-round technical knockout of Arturo Uruzquieta (15-6); and Willie Nelson improved to 22-1-1 with a first-round technical knockout of Darryl Cunningham (29-7). In his first professional bout, Jantory Ortiz stopped Elio Ruiz (1-5) in the first round.

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