MightyGloves.com

Cotto destroys Gomez

posted by Kathleen Holland on April 12, 2008, in Events

Story by Mark DeSisto

In a complete mismatch at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic
City, New Jersey, WBA welterweight champion Miguel
Cotto pounded and toyed with “Contender” star Alphonso
Gomez for 5 rounds before Gomez’s corner called a halt
to the bout on the advice of the ringside physician.
Cotto’s dominance was evident from the opening bell,
showing off his still underrated boxing skills as he
couldn’t miss with the jab, moved out of the way of
anything Gomez threw, and timing effective power
punches. A jab at the end of round 1 seemed to have
Gomez stumbling a bit and Gomez’s face was already
quite red and marked up.

Cotto was credited with a knockdown in the second
round as he hit Gomez with what appeared to be a jab
and missed with a left hook as Gomez was falling to
the canvas.

By round 3 Cotto appeared to be enjoying himself as if
he was in a friendly sparring session while breaking
Gomez down with shots to the head and his devastating
body punches. Cotto caught Gomez with a right to the
gut with just a second left in the 3rd round to score
his second official knockdown.

With the 4th being another dominating round for Cotto
, his corner must have been thinking about stopping
the fight.

Being fully aware of the devastation taking place in
the ring, Cotto seemed to back off of Gomez when it
appeared he could have taken Gomez(18-4-2,8KO) out
anytime at this point and punctuated the mismatch by
knocking down Gomez a 3rd time with a simple stiff
jab. Cotto essentially allowed the Gomez corner and
doctor to decide the bout should be over rather than
stick Gomez with a devastating knockout, and Cotto
deserves credit for that display of heart.
Cotto remains undefeated at 32-0(26 KO) and appears to
be set up with what would simply be an amazing fight
with promoter Top Rank’s other premier welterweight
champion, Antonio Margarito.

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