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Cotto landed the right
cross and slipped in a left-hook to the
body. Cotto wobbled Gomez again with his
solid jab. Gomez began to look marked up
around both eyes. He continued to dominate
the round with his boxing skills and Gomez
slipped to the canvas without a punch
landing, but it was called a knockdown by
referee Randy Neumann.
Gomez came out in round
three attempting to box Cotto, keeping his
jab in Cotto’s face. Cotto again landed to
the body frequently. His overall boxing
seemed to be frustrating Gomez, as he
started to land the uppercut with more
regularity.. He started switching from
orthodox to southpaw, having equal
effectiveness with his left hand. As Gomez
showed his own successes, particularly with
the uppercut a huge left-hook to the body at
the end of the round dropped Gomez, who
grimaced in pain.
Cotto continued his body
assault in round four, as Gomez desperately
tried to weather the storm and keep his
elbows enclosed. Cotto landed with mostly
straight punches to head and body. Once
again, his jab snapped the head back of
Gomez. Gomez had few successes in the round
but landed his own left to the body, and
uppercut. Cotto reiterated his dominance at
the end of the round as he landed three and
four punch combinations with his crisp,
straight punches.
Between rounds, the
doctor informed Gomez that if he didn’t show
more action, he would be forced to intervene
and halt the carnage. The right-cross down
the center landed for Cotto. Gomez then
landed a jab, but Cotto had a better reply
with his stronger jab. Cotto began dancing
around and dropped his hands, but threw an
ominous jab, which dropped Gomez again. He
managed to beat the count but looked
disheartened. They both traded punches,
where Cotto’s work was better, but showed
little of the necessary urgency to finish
the job.
The doctor made a
compassionate decision at the end of the
fifth and stepped in to stop the fight.
Cotto was declared the winner by TKO and
retained his title. After the fight he said
to Larry Merchant “I tried to do everything
in the fight”. He proclaimed that his jab
was the difference and made reference to his
versatility, “I can do more than one thing”,
he said.
Cotto now eyes a
unification showdown with new IBF
Welterweight champion Antonio Margarito in
July, who became a two-time world champion
on the same card in winning a rematch with
Kermit Cintron by sixth round knockout.
Cotto was also asked about fighting Floyd
Maywather Jr. in the near future, where
Cotto confidently explained “I’m not scared
of (fighting) anybody”. |
