After suffering consecutive losses to Floyd Mayweather, Jr., and Austin Trout, Cotto faced questions regarding how much he had left, and, perhaps more important, just how much he wanted to give. Trainer Pedro Diaz was given his walking papers, replaced by A-lister Freddie Roach, who, like Cotto, has watched his own heyday disappear in the rearview mirror. The marriage of the offensive-minded Roach and the shopworn Cotto has injected some life into the fighter’s twilight run. After Manny Pacquiao ran him through a wood-chipper in 2009, Cotto, Caguas, Puerto Rico, become increasingly reliant on his boxing skills to win fights, tempering the ferocity that typified his destructive craft with some cuter tricks. Was there a seance or two, maybe some dark hours with a Ouija board to go with the mitt work to help conjure up Cotto’s past as he prepared for Rodriguez? Whatever tactics Roach employed, they worked. Roach wanted Cotto to fight. Cotto fought, and Rodriguez suffered the consequences.
Rolling Thunder: Miguel Cotto TKO3 Delvin Rodriguez on The Cruelest Sport.