Boxer Hopes to Become Household Name

NEW YORK (AP) _ Some advice for young, promising fighters: Avoid getting in the ring with Miguel Cotto. It could be hazardous to one's career. <br/><br/>Cotto is a 26-year-old Puerto Rican who delivers

Monday, December 25th 2006, 6:47 am

By: News On 6

NEW YORK (AP) _ Some advice for young, promising fighters: Avoid getting in the ring with Miguel Cotto. It could be hazardous to one's career.

Cotto is a 26-year-old Puerto Rican who delivers vicious body punches and nasty hooks. His latest victory came Dec. 2 in Atlantic City, N.J., where he pummeled tough welterweight Carlos Quintana and won in five rounds.

The victory gave Cotto a second world title and his first million-dollar payday. It also was considered his coming-of-age moment.

Now, Cotto (28-0, 23 KOs) is hoping to cash in, with the goal of one day supplanting Floyd Mayweather as boxing's best pound-for-pound fighter.

``All the good boxers, I know I can fight with them,'' Cotto said in an interview from his home in Caguas, Puerto Rico. ``I know I can beat them. I have no doubts.''

Cotto doesn't like to simply beat opponents, he likes to destroy them. But he is modest and soft-spoken, going about his work without the hyperbolic rhetoric of a Bernard Hopkins or James Toney.

``I don't like to talk ,'' said Cotto, who starting boxing at age 11 to lose weight.

Cotto fights with a punishing style that disfigures the faces of foes. He declines to compare himself to any one boxer, although his relentless ring stalking and trademark body shots make him more Tony Zale than Marvin Hagler.

Like Zale, a middleweight champion in the 1940s, Cotto prefers attacking the body. He's knocked out about a half dozen fighters digging to the body like a backhoe.

He has dispatched everybody in front of him in a stretch of impressive wins over the previous two years. But Cotto points to three recent victories that have helped him mature into a seasoned boxer.

Against Ricard Torres last year, Cotto was knocked down and staggered but recovered to win when the fight was stopped in the seventh.

``I had two or three bad moments,'' Cotto said. ``I survived and won the fight.''

In June, he beat the loquacious and speedy Paulie Malignaggi of Brooklyn. Cotto said he had to tune out Malignaggi, who tried to distract him with verbal jabs.

``I had to keep my focus,'' Cotto said.

Malignaggi managed to go all 12 rounds but Cotto easily outpointed him and fractured the undefeated fighter's face, sending him to the hospital. Malignaggi said Cotto was the hardest puncher he ever faced.

His last fight against Quintana, a fellow Puerto Rican and left-hander, was risky. Cotto moved up to 147 pounds to battle Quintana for the WBA welterweight title.

The fight basically ended when Cotto delivered his signature shot to Quintana's liver. A battered Quintana refused to leave his corner as his trainer pleaded with him to go another round.

``I can't do it,'' Quintana said. ``I can't do it. I'm dead.''

Cotto said he felt much stronger fighting Quintana. He no longer had to conserve his stamina as he did at 140. He could let loose with his fists from start to finish.

``Now, you're seeing the real Miguel Cotto,'' said Cotto's promoter Bob Arum, chief executive of Top Rank Inc. ``He's found a natural weight.''

Cotto's next bout is against Oktay Urkal (37-3) in March in Puerto Rico. Most boxing commentators believe he'll beat the German. Then there are possible fights down the road with Antonio Margarito and Shane Mosley _ perhaps at Madison Square Garden, where Cotto has fought twice before on the eve of the Puerto Rican Day Parade.

If Cotto can get past these very skilled fighters, it could set up a showdown with Mayweather, who fights Oscar De La Hoya in May.

Arum hopes the two meet.

``We think he'd break Mayweather in two,'' Arum said. ``There is nobody in boxing who hits harder. It's a lot harder to move the body than the head.''

HBO boxing analyst Max Kellerman isn't ready to call Cotto the next Felix Trinidad, arguably one of Puerto Rico's best fighters, along with Wilfredo Gomez. He says Cotto has a slugger's chance against Mayweather but he'd be a definite underdog.

Cotto also has to improve his English if he wants to cement his crossover appeal and evolve into one of the sport's superstars. Top Rank says Cotto is taking English classes.

But if he can do that, Cotto could go far in any of three divisions that are bulging with talented fighters, Kellerman says.

``He could be the centerpiece of a truly remarkable era,'' Kellerman said. ``He's the right guy, at the right place, at the right time.''