Validation or realisation?

In a brutal, hurtful, painful to watch and surprisingly one-sided fight at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Miguel Cotto moved up to middleweight and at the first attempt, claimed the WBC title from champion Sergio Martinez. After knocking down the champion 3 times in the first round, Cotto went on to dominate the Argentinian and systemically take him apart until his corner retired him at the end of the ninth round, to become the first Puerto Rican to win world championships at four weight divisions.

When this fight was announced, for me it was a close call but Cotto had the slight edge. Reason being, he was the younger man, had the better boxing ability, chin, skill and on paper, power. But Martinez was the bigger man, was the better athlete and the champion.

Coming into this fight there were a lot of questions to be answered. Can Cotto cope with Martinez’ pace and stamina. Can Cotto cope with moving up to Martinez’ weight? Can Martinez cope with Cotto’s relentless attacks? How will Martinez deal with Cotto’s body shots?

More importantly, how much of a difference has Freddie Roach made to Cotto and how will Martinez be after being out the ring for 14 months and on crutches for 7 months only a year ago?

I think most of those questions were answered after only the first minute of the fight when Cotto caught Martinez with a left hook that stiffened his legs and sent him staggering across the ring. Cotto flew straight in with punches and floored the champion.

20 seconds later, Martinez was floored again after being caught once more with a left hook which rocked him and sent him to the canvas. As quickly as he was up, Martinez was floored for a third time, this time looking unsteady on his feet under Cotto’s barrage of swings but non really connecting.

At that moment I knew Martinez would not be able to recover fully. I remember Pacquiao flooring Marquez 3 times in their first fight but the Mexican recovered to get a credible draw. I actually thought Marquez won that fight, this was totally different.

Martinez, with two braces on his knees just didn’t look right. His mobility was all over the place and he didn’t look agile. His knees looked stiff and unsteady, not because of the Cottto blows (though they were a factor) they just looked weak.

There is speculation of the nature of his operation that left him on crutches for a reported 7 months which to me sounded crazy. You have to questions Martinez’ intelligence taking this fight because to me he clearly wasn’t fit. But that’s not taking anything away from Cotto and Roach who must have suspected this and this is the reason Cotta went after him early.

Martinez did rally for a time and I thought he actually won the third and maybe the fourth just. But Cotto was in no danger and to me looked like he took his foot off the gas as he knew he had his man.

The fifth and sixth were close but Cotto stepped it up from the seventh and kept catching Martinz. At the end of the ninth, Martinez had to take a count when he got caught with a shot and dipped, but clearly didn’t touch down as the ref thought.

This was all irrelevant because Martinez’s corner had seen enough and didn’t send their fighter out for the tenth round. Instead calling it a night to save him further punishment.

I have said it before, father time catches up with all of us (unless you are an alien like Bernard Hopkins). But at 39, after being on crutches for 7 months only a year ago, you have to say Martinez’ over confidence got the better of him. Even though he was fighting a smaller man, Cotto is an elite fighter. You just have to look at the trouble he gave Mayweather to see this, and in the end he gave Martinez a beating.

Now I feel we are left with more questions than answers. Though most will just look at Cotto’s demolition and leave it at that…..I am a little more curious.

Is Cotto really back? Has Roach really made that much of a difference? Was it only a matter of time before Martinez was going to be exposed? How good is/was Martinez as he’s not fought much real top class fighters, is 39 and though outclassed Chavez Jr (who I think is massively overrated) for 11 rounds, Chavez Jr did almost stop him in the last round.

So the real questions after this fight is: was it validation for Cotto or realisation for Martinez? I guess we will never know……Until either of them fight again.