Cotto vs. Canelo: Puncher Who Can Box vs. Boxer/Puncher

Saul “Canelo” Alvarez faces one of the toughest and most versatile opponents of his career in Miguel Cotto on Saturday at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas.

Some would deny this due to the length of Cotto’s resume, but Alvarez is confronting a man who defeated Sergio Martinez as an underdog in capturing the lineal middleweight championship in June 2014. Make no mistake, love him or hate him, Alvarez is a special fighter and has identified himself as one of the sport’s premier boxer/punchers. What exactly is a boxer/puncher? This is definitely an intriguing question, as some would identify Cotto as such, but this article will pose a slightly different perspective in contrasting the two. Many people felt “Canelo” followed a flawed strategy in attempting to box at range with Floyd Mayweather Jr. This was and was not a mistake. He really could not win at the time, and yet, this is who “Canelo” is. He is no mindless brawler, and despite how it may seem sometimes -- when he has an opponent hurt, for example -- he is not fully comfortable merely moving forward powered solely by his offense. It seems as if his capabilities as a combination puncher and fantastic finisher had convinced some that Alvarez is something he is not.

Related » Preview: ‘Canelo’ Alvarez vs. Miguel Cotto

It has become a fairly common theme in Alvarez’s fights that he prefers to slow the pace and operate from long range. He also likes to weaken his opponents with well-placed punches, as opposed to doing damage solely by attrition. The only factors that have detracted from his abilities in this area are a lack of foot speed and some lapses in lateral movement. When attacking, he has a habit of closing range in straight lines, leaving his opponents escape routes of diagonal angles around him, as was demonstrated in his fight with skilled Cuban boxer Erislandy Lara in July 2014. Yet “Canelo” has better hand speed than he is given credit for, along with excellent creativity in shot placement and combination punching and a certain relentlessness that many classic boxers, as in fighters who like to move, seem to lack. His understanding of distance and timing keep him in dangerous ranges for his opponents, and he possesses real stopping power in either hand. Carlos Baldomir, a former welterweight champion known for his durability, said “Canelo” hit him harder with a single shot than anyone ever had before -- a left hook that put “Tata” flat on the canvas for the entire 10 count.

In fact, given the opponents who have troubled Alvarez, it paints a classic picture of a boxer/puncher. Most fighters of this ilk have difficulty with pure boxers who move frequently, change positions and change angles because, despite their understanding of each phase, they are still punchers; and they usually lack speed of either hand or foot, sometimes both. As a result, they consistently look to pin down an opponent at their ideal range, usually middle distance or outside, and land their big blows. Despite some skill in movement, they still look to set their feet when they unload their heavy artillery. Pure boxers tend to bank more on landing deceptive punches their opponents do not see coming. They accomplish this by firing from angles, oftentimes while they or the opponent is in the middle of a maneuver or an attack. However, the boxer/puncher likes to get a good look at you first while setting up his position and usually not moving a whole lot. Some have questioned Alvarez’s power because he has not knocked out everyone he has faced. However, he has demonstrated the ability to hurt most of his opponents with one or two shots, even if he did not quite put them in the same position repeatedly.

Cotto has had a storied career. When he first came on the scene, he made big waves in the 140-pound division by practically walking through and mowing down his preliminary opposition. Then he came across Ricardo Torres, an equally potent puncher who badly hurt Cotto in their September 2005 bout. Because he had been previously hurt by Demarcus “Chop Chop” Corley, it was decided that Cotto was comparably fragile -- the type of fighter who definitely cannot take as well as he can give and the type of fighter who is subject to capitulating when faced with an equally potent force. Yet he still managed to capture titles in multiple weight divisions despite this perceived weakness. Cotto is what we would define as a pure puncher, with one of the more potent left hooks in recent times. However, there was an impossible-to-overlook June 2005 encounter with Mohammed Abdullaev, a man who had defeated Cotto as an amateur. Abdullaev was a forward-moving tank of a fighter with incredible durability and a volume punching style. Basically, the man never ceased to step forward and attack. In the early stages of their rematch at the pro level, Cotto seemed determined to prove he could stand and bang with Abdullaev, but the fight was too close for comfort for the Puerto Rican and his corner. Somewhere in the middle rounds, magic happened. Cotto began to step backwards and showed incredible skill and versatility in using angles and creative footwork, all while throwing with the same potency he had moving forward. This is atypical of pure punchers and showed Cotto was a vastly underrated boxer. He was a puncher who could box.

Some believe Cotto was at his best as both incarnations, with his uncle, Evangelista Cotto, serving as his trainer. However, his ability to both box and punch was further demonstrated in his destruction of Antonio Margarito in their 2011 rematch. Under famed Cuban trainer Pedro Diaz, Cotto jabbed, moved laterally and literally boxed circles around the damaged Margarito. It was also under Diaz that he gave Mayweather one of his toughest bouts, keeping “Money” pinned to the ropes for long periods, drawing blood and landing punishing body shots. Some regard it as the best performance against Mayweather since Jose Luis Castillo. The only obstacle was a lingering problem he actually shares with “Canelo” -- the tendency to fade later in fights; that makes their matchup all the more interesting. Both have run out of gas against opponents who made them work much harder for longer than they prefer. Punchers normally go for maximum exertion when they think they can land, while pure boxers tend to be much more conservative with their energy. “Canelo” and Cotto fall somewhere in between. Since changing trainers to Freddie Roach, Cotto seems to have returned to his more traditional role as a pure puncher. No one expected him to come out so strong in the early rounds with Martinez. Cotto hurt him badly and never allowed him to recover. It was shades of the 140-pound Cotto who had won the hearts of fight fans worldwide.

It will be fascinating to see how this match plays out. Against the backdrop of the long rivalry between Puerto Rico and Mexico, each fighter is under tremendous pressure to perform. Add to that the fact that championship gold is at stake and the idea that this is a young lion going against a rejuvenated veteran, and fireworks are likely. In terms of strategy, Cotto has the advantage of being adaptable in a fight. He also holds the experience edge, too, and the single-punch potency in his left hook is likely greater than any punch “Canelo” can throw. However, Alvarez seems to have the advantage of distributed power in both hands. Cotto has more skilled and smooth footwork; “Canelo” is bigger and stronger and seems to be quicker of hand. While Alvarez ran into trouble with pure boxers in Lara and Mayweather, it seems unlikely that Roach will have Cotto dancing around the ring. He lacks the speed of foot necessary to keep “Canelo” away and off-balance. Alvarez was once thought to be somewhat fragile, as he was hurt by Cotto’s younger brother, Jose, who was undersized in their May 2010 bout. It makes much more sense that Roach would suspect that if Jose could stumble “Canelo,” his older brother can knock him out. However, he must be wary, as Jose wound up getting stopped. Cotto has to use caution whenever attempting to unload heavy artillery against a bigger, younger, faster man who seems to hold more of the favorable advantages.

Luis Monda is currently a full-time boxing trainer at Johnny Tocco's in Las Vegas, which is the oldest gym in Sin City. Luis has a deep knowledge of combat sports history, and has spent significant time researching lineages in boxing, specifically. He has been involved in the local-fight scene for nearly a decade: first as a potential competitor, then as the manager of Tocco's, and now as an instructor to boxers, kickboxers, and mixed martial arts fighters.