The Battle (boxing) - Background - Miguel Cotto

Miguel Cotto

After making six successful defenses of the World Boxing Organization (WBO) light welterweight title, Cotto moved up in weight class to the welterweight division and defeated Carlos Quintana on December 2, 2006 to win the World Boxing Association (WBA) welterweight title. Cotto's first title defense came against mandatory challenger Oktay Urkal in a bout that took place on March 3, 2007, at the Roberto Clemente Coliseum in San Juan, Puerto Rico. A mandatory challenger is a boxer who is chosen by a boxing organization to fight for their title. If the champion decides not to defend the title against the mandatory challenger, the boxing organization strips him of his title. In attendance for the bout was former undisputed welterweight champion Zab Judah, who was expected to be Cotto's next opponent as long as Cotto defeated Urkal and Judah won his fight in April. Cotto displayed a dominant performance against Urkal, eventually to the point where Urkal's corner retired in the eleventh round. On April 13, 2007, Judah's match with journeyman boxer Ruben Galvan ended in a no contest after a severe cut opened up around Galvan's hairline, which was ruled to have been caused by Judah's elbow. Despite the no contest, the bout between Cotto and Judah went ahead as planned, taking place at Madison Square Garden in New York City on June 9, 2007. In front of a sellout crowd of 20,658, Cotto defeated Judah by technical knockout in the eleventh round.

In his next fight, Cotto fought former three-division champion Shane Mosley on November 10, 2007. Mosley had originally set his sights on fighting World Boxing Council (WBC) welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather, Jr., but Mayweather was in negotiations to fight Ricky Hatton, and on July 28, 2007, Mayweather and Hatton officially agreed to the fight. With the two fights scheduled to take place a month apart from each other, the media speculated that the winners of the two fights would likely fight each other next. Cotto was successful in his third title defense, defeating Mosley by unanimous decision at Madison Square Garden in New York City, while one month later, Mayweather defeated Hatton by tenth round technical knockout at the MGM Grand in Paradise, Nevada. Following his victory, Mayweather announced that he would take a two-year layoff from boxing to focus on his promotional company. However, one month later, Mayweather began negotiations for a rematch with Oscar De La Hoya. With several top welterweight fighters unavailable, Cotto agreed to fight Alfonso Gomez, a fighter most notable for appearing on the first season of The Contender. The match took place on April 12, 2008, at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey, and resulted in a victory for Cotto after the ring doctor stopped the fight after round five.