Miguel Cotto vs Ricardo Torres

In his fourth title defence, Miguel Cotto retained the WBO junior-welterweight championship after a violent seven-round contest with Ricardo Torres at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City on September 24, 2005. Cotto, unbeaten in 24 professional contests, weighed 140lb, as did the Colombian challenger, who brought an unbeaten 28-0 record with 26 stoppages. Torres had accepted the fight at short notice after Gianluca Branco withdrew. Although much of his record had been compiled against modest opposition in Colombia, his punching power proved genuine almost immediately.

Cotto began quickly, stalking behind the jab and looking to force Torres backwards. The champion scored first, dropping Torres in the opening round with a sharp combination. What followed established the character of the fight. Instead of retreating after rising, Torres answered with a heavy left hook which rocked Cotto and forced him to hold. The challenger had discovered that he could hurt the champion, and from that point neither man was inclined to box cautiously.

Torres seized his opportunity in the second. He hurt Cotto early with a left hook and then drove him backwards with sustained punches to the head and body. Cotto was dropped for the first time in his professional career and rose badly shaken. Torres continued attacking and repeatedly caught him with hooks and overhand rights as Cotto tried to regain his balance. The champion survived through instinct, holding when necessary and firing back whenever enough strength returned to his legs. By the end of the round, both men had been hurt, and the fight had already become far more severe than expected.

Cotto recovered sufficiently in the third to restore some order. He returned to the jab and began placing his punches more carefully instead of exchanging every time Torres attacked. There was an interruption when one of Cotto’s punches landed low, and Torres was given time to recover. When action resumed, Cotto forced the challenger towards the ropes and worked with uppercuts and short combinations, leaving Torres unsteady before the bell. The fourth brought another significant turn when Cotto attacked the body and put Torres down again. The Colombian rose and continued throwing, but Cotto had regained the initiative.

Torres refused to disappear. In the fifth, he came back strongly and once more had Cotto in difficulty. The champion was caught by a right-left combination and was forced to retreat under pressure. Torres’s punches were wide at times, but their effect was obvious whenever they landed cleanly. Cotto’s face and manner showed the strain of the fight, yet he continued to answer rather than surrender ground completely. Torres had proved that he could hurt him repeatedly, and Cotto could never afford to relax.

The sixth contained another heavy exchange. Torres again shook Cotto, but the champion recovered and retaliated with the straighter, more compact work. Late in the round, Cotto landed a right hand which put Torres down for the third time. The challenger rose and survived, but by then the official cards showed Cotto ahead. Dennis Nelson and Chuck Giampa each had him leading 57-53, while Julie Lederman scored it 56-53. The figures did not fully convey the danger Cotto had faced, for Torres had been within a punch of changing the contest on several occasions.

The seventh was no less dangerous. Torres again hurt Cotto and pressed forward, looking for the punch that might finish what he had started in the second. Cotto, however, continued to hold his ground and answer. As Torres came forward, the champion found the opening he needed. A right-left combination sent the challenger down once more. Torres was unable to recover before the count was completed and the contest ended at 1:52 of the round. It was the fourth knockdown suffered by Torres and the fifth knockdown of the fight overall.

Cotto had won, but the contest revealed as much about his resistance as his ability to attack. He had been dropped for the first time as a professional and hurt repeatedly thereafter, yet each time managed to recover sufficiently to resume fighting on effective terms. His body punching and shorter combinations gradually made the difference, while Torres’s willingness to pursue the finish repeatedly left him available for counters.

For Torres, defeat did little to diminish the impression he made. He arrived as an unknown challenger to many American viewers and demonstrated that his record and punching power could not be ignored. He had forced Cotto through the hardest fight of his career to that point and had come close to stopping him more than once. Cotto later identified the contest as the night which helped establish him with a wider audience, and there was good reason. He had been tested in a manner no previous professional opponent had managed and had answered with both resilience and finishing power.

This fight is well worth going back and watching. By this stage, Cotto was already being talked about as a man who could eventually go straight in with the likes of Ricky Hatton or Kostya Tszyu, and people were looking past opponents towards the big fights at 140. Then Ricardo Torres turned up at short notice, largely unknown outside Colombia, and nearly tore the whole script up.

What I like about it is that you see both sides of Cotto. You see the vulnerability, because Torres could really punch and had him badly hurt more than once, but you also see the composure and the spite. Cotto didn’t panic after being dropped. He went back to the body, shortened his punches and gradually started taking the fight away from Torres.

Torres deserves massive credit. He wasn’t there to survive or make up the numbers. He came to win, and every time Cotto looked as if he had got control, Torres found another heavy shot and dragged him back into trouble.

For me, this was the night Cotto stopped looking like just a very good prospect and started looking like a proper fighter. He had to get off the floor, take punishment, think under pressure and then finish a dangerous opponent.

What a great fight to watch.